{"id":1169501,"date":"2026-08-26T01:10:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T01:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1169501\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T01:10:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T01:10:24","slug":"jennifer-garner-on-mourning-after-losing-the-west-wing-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1169501\/","title":{"rendered":"Jennifer Garner on ‘Mourning’ After Losing ‘The West Wing’ Role"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJennifer Garner<\/a> came close to getting elected for a spot in Aaron Sorkin<\/a>\u2018s The West Wing back in the day but when it didn\u2019t work out, the actress set off on a solo trip to the desert to lick her wounds. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGod, I wanted it so badly,\u201d Garner told Emma Grede<\/a> on a new episode of her Audacy podcast, Aspire, that dropped Tuesday. \u201cI got down and I tested for it, and when I didn\u2019t get it, I had to go to the desert \u2014 my first time in Palm Springs by myself \u2014 and just sit there for a couple of days.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGarner called it a \u201cmourning\u201d process after losing the part on such a \u201cgood show.\u201d Though she didn\u2019t reveal the part for which she auditioned, it was previously reported<\/a> that she tested for the role of Ainsley Hayes on the NBC drama, which eventually went to actress Emily Proctor. Garner had told Flaunt that at the time she had considered it the biggest loss of her career: \u201cI love Aaron Sorkin\u2019s writing. I love words. I love how dense the language and the dialogue [is].\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile she was devastated, a career-making opportunity was just days away from falling in her lap. \u201cTwo weeks later, Alias came to me,\u201d Garner told Grede of the J.J. Abrams-created action series that cast her as international spy Sydney Bristow and catapulted her to fame. \u201cLike, what is it? God\u2019s rejection is divine, divine \u2026 protection? Rejection is God\u2019s protection. \u2026 I\u2019m all for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJennifer Garner sits for an interview during an episode of the podcast \u2018Aspire With Emma Grede\u2019 on Audacy.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: Aspire with Emma Grede \/ Audacy<\/p>\n

\n\tGarner was also all for discussing the ins and outs of her career, how she adjusted to fame, coming to terms with having to deal with the paparazzi\u2019s intense obsession<\/a> with her life, and building a successful business in Once Upon a Farm as co-founder and chief brand officer.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the career front, Garner revealed how she and her manager had a strategic conversation about jumping back into work after her split from husband Ben Affleck<\/a>. \u201cI panicked when I was first out of my marriage and realized I had taken such a step back in my work, and suddenly I realized, like, \u2018I don\u2019t know how long I\u2019ll be able to work.\u2019 This isn\u2019t a career that\u2019s like, \u2018Hey, you\u2019re 60, you\u2019re 55, you\u2019re 43? Come on, let\u2019s pay you more than you\u2019ve ever made,\u2019\u201d she explained. \u201cI was suddenly like, \u2018Wait a minute. I have to take care of myself. I have to take care of these kids. I didn\u2019t get some huge payout.\u2019 So what is it gonna be? We just got very calculated and [manager Nicole King] was like, \u2018How can you work?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGarner responded with her prerequisites: \u201cI said, \u2018I can work in Los Angeles. I can\u2019t leave these kids for six months at a time.\u2019 I would love to. I love going on location. That is not this time in my career. And so it was like, \u2018OK, what can we make happen? How can we do it?\u2019 And we just got really targeted and still about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAbout the paparazzi, Garner revealed that the swarm surrounding her and her young children became so intense that she looked into relocating. \u201cWe tried to move. We looked at schools. I applied at schools. People across this country would be like, \u2018Yeah, actually, they came and toured. She applied. They did the whole thing.\u2019 But we realized that, you know, the pictures of us at the time were so valuable. If we were on location somewhere, if we were trying living somewhere, they would just buy a big camera and get in their minivan and follow us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat option didn\u2019t prove to be \u201cany safer,\u201d she continued. \u201cSo it was just like, \u2018Oh my gosh, we might as well mess up the city we\u2019re already messing up.\u2019 Like, they don\u2019t know what to do with us in Boston when we do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWatch the full episode below. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jennifer Garner came close to getting elected for a spot in Aaron Sorkin\u2018s The West Wing back in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1169502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3940],"tags":[69804,13534,4080,54199,77,51477,16,15],"class_list":["post-1169501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-aaron-sorkin","tag-ben-affleck","tag-celebrities","tag-emma-grede","tag-entertainment","tag-jennifer-garner","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117159149686290258","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1169501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1169502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1169501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1169501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1169501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}