Jennifer Garner questions ‘The Last Thing He Told Me’

BY JAY BOBBIN

Jennifer Garner has had success in movies, but she clearly remembers what series work also has done for her career.

The actress and producer evidently hopes such benefits will continue, since she’s going the weeklyshow route again: She stars in “The Last Thing He Told Me,” an Apple TV+ drama that premieres with two episodes Friday, April 14. Based on the bestselling novel by Laura Dave, who adapted it along with her husband Josh Singer (“Spotlight”), it casts Garner as a woman helped by her stepdaughter (Angourie Rice) in probing why her husband (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, “Game of Thrones”) has vanished.

Aisha Tyler, Geoff Stults and David Morse also are in the cast of the show ... as is Victor Garber, who played Garner’s father on the series that made her a star, “Alias.” Overall, “The Last Thing He Told Me” boasts strong female representation among its creative talents; with Reese Witherspoon also an executive producer of it along with Garner, it has only women as its directors.

After some TV-movie work and series guest roles, Garner landed her first show in 1998: “Significant Others,” a Fox drama from the creators of “Party of Five.” That didn’t last long, but she soon rebounded with a part on the then-WB Network’s “Felicity.” In 1999, Garner began a prominent role in support of Jennifer Love Hewitt on Fox’s “Party of Five” spinoff “Time of Your Life.”

Again, that series had only a short life, but something bigger was in store for Garner. That was the ABC spy saga “Alias,” which began what became a five-season run in 2001. As espionage agent Sydney Bristow, she earned four Primetime Emmy nominations, winning a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award. As often happens for sudden TV stars, she began getting feature-film offers, “13 Going on 30” being a Garner movie that particularly resonated with audiences (and has continued to over the years).

Theatrical films would continue to be Garner’s main career thrust for more than a decade, but she started to work her way back to series in 2018 with her role in HBO’s “Camping.” She also headlined the nowdefunct Quibi’s “Home Movie: The Princess Bride,” and she joined the cast of the Starz comedy “Party Down” for this year’s revival ... playing, interestingly enough, a movie producer.

Other projects designed mainly for home screens may be coming from Garner in the near future; at least one that was set to go was scrapped after she pulled out of it, reportedly due to scheduling conflicts. For now, “The Last Thing He Told Me” sends a major signal that she’s open to revisiting the medium and format that did much to get her started professionally.