KEY POINTS:
As a veteran of action movies such as Daredevil and Elektra, as well as five seasons of Alias, Jennifer Garner has kicked and clawed her way through more fight scenes than the Bionic Woman and Bruce Lee combined.
But she wasn't prepared for the scuffle that awaited her on the set of The Kingdom, director Peter Berg's action extravaganza about four FBI agents (Garner, Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, Jason Bateman) sent to Saudi Arabia to investigate a terrorist attack.
"When I showed up, my long-time stuntwoman Shauna Duggins had already learned the fight and she said, 'This is unlike anything we have ever, ever done. Just get ready because they want you and this guy to try to beat the shit out of each other'."
Garner laughs at the memory of a day spent brawling with a stuntman twice her size.
"It was so down and dirty that I had scratch marks on my face for the next few days. This guy just tried to grab me and pull my face off. He had a scab on his ear because I bit down and yanked. Oh, it was nasty. But it was great!"
While the gruelling sequence was being filmed, Garner's husband Ben Affleck stopped by for a visit. To her surprise, he sat quietly on the sidelines and watched his wife receive an on-set mauling.
"I thought it would have made him a little bit nervous to see them chucking me against the wall harder and harder with every take," she says good-naturedly. "He was a little too calm about it, between you and me. I felt like he could have said, 'That's my wife, you better be careful with her!' He got wrapped up in the scene. At one point, he said, 'Go for broke, babe. Harder!"'
A self-confessed tomboy, Garner doesn't to be convinced to go for broke. Whether playing an action hero in Daredevil (where she met Affleck) or making her Broadway debut this season in Cyrano de Bergerac, the actress makes fearlessness look easy.
Becoming a mum to 2-year-old Violet hasn't changed Garner's commitment to pushing the envelope.
"We did have a rule in the fight scene that the guy had to stay away from my boobs because I was still breastfeeding," she says. "So, I would say that motherhood did have some impact but, otherwise, what are a couple of bruises? Violet doesn't care; she's just a kid, and I'm fine."
Garner insists she'll never change the intensity of her performances, but motherhood has prompted her to reduce her workload.
"Violet is a natural priority," she says. "I probably would have worked straight through this year. Lots of great, fun things came up but I can't bear to do something that I don't have to do. I don't like being away from Violet; she is just so delicious."
Garner, who enjoys going from romantic comedies such as 13 Going on 30 and Catch and Release to action films like Daredevil and Elektra, didn't have to think twice about accepting Peter Berg's offer of a role in The Kingdom - which opens in New Zealand next Thursday.
A movie that balances gunplay with ripped-from-the-headline politics, The Kingdom has garnered mostly positive buzz from advance screenings.
"I think the film says that all of us are very much the same," says Garner. "That's what I loved about it. I loved that there are no solid heroes in the film. It's not like the US is coming to Saudi Arabia, guns blazing saying, 'We'll take care of this'.
"My favourite line is when Jamie Foxx says, 'Look, I'm not saying that the US knows everything, but this [investigation] is something we're good at'. We are not pretending to be perfect in the film."
Being the only woman in a cast of men was a bit of a lonely experience for Garner. "Think of The Kingdom and how many men are in it opposed to how many women are in it," she says. "That's true of every single movie being made right now.
"Anytime an actress gets to work with another actress, we go, 'Oh, there are two of us in a movie. How are you? Let's sit in the hair and makeup chairs together and talk'. We are lonely women.
"Let's face it, women get screwed in this industry. It's hard to find roles at all, let alone strong female roles."
Garner snatched another dream role in Juno, a low-budget indie due to open in the US on December 14.
The most talked-about film at the recent Toronto Film Festival, the comedy stars Garner as a woman who plans to adopt the unwanted child of a 16-year-old girl (Ellen Page).
Ever since Garner was embraced by TV mogul J.J. Abrams (Lost) in 1998, she hasn't stopped working. Abrams cast her as a regular on TV's Felicity (where she met first former husband Scott Foley), then created Alias for her. The spy saga earned Garner four Emmy nominations during its five-season run. Abrams is now preparing to direct the next Star Trek film, and Garner has accepted a cameo role. First, Garner has to fulfil her obligation to appear on Broadway in Cyrano de Bergerac, playing Roxanne opposite Kevin Kline.
"This has always been my absolute dream of all dreams," she says. "All of this other stuff I've done has been accidental. I always, always meant to be on stage.
"I only ended up even auditioning for television and movies because I was understudying a Turgenev play on Broadway and was so broke that when I got a mini-series I had to take it.
"But working with Kevin Kline, being in New York in the fall, doing this role, getting to say these words, just thinking about it I get so excited."
After Garner's play closes in December, it's on to more movies, including a romantic comedy called Ghosts of Girlfriends Past along with Matthew McConaughey. "I have a bunch of projects lined up," she says. "I'm happy to report there are no fight scenes in any of them. But they aren't small indies either. Mama's got to go to work."
LOWDOWN
Who: Jennifer Garner
Born: April 17 1972, Houston, Texas
Married: Was to Scott Foley (of The Unit fame) until 2003; Now married to Ben Affleck with whom she has a daughter, Violet
Key roles: Alias (2001-2006), Daredevil (2003), 13 Going on 30 (2004), Elektra (2005)
Latest: The Kingdom, opens at cinemas on October 4
-Featurewell
