LOS ANGELES-It has been a dozen years since Jennifer Garner starred in the spy-vs.-spy television series "Alias." Since then, she's been working almost exclusively in film, with productions such as "Catch and Release," "Valentine's Day," "Dallas Buyers Club" and "Peppermint."
The long journey away from television is ending, as Garner stars in the new HBO series "Camping." Logic would dictate Garner should have been hounded by producers to take on another series, considering the success of "Alias." If there were Hollywood people with TV shows for her, Garner never heard their pitches.
"I think that I was working in another way and the momentum was just headed a different direction. But I said and have always said 'I assume at some point I look forward to going back to TV,'" Garner says. "I love the familial feel on set. I love getting a new script. I mean there is nothing more fun than in the middle of the second episode receiving the third and it's just like oh my gosh how are we going to do it, how are we going to make this work, how will I get through it?
"And that's just a super fun feeling. But no, I wasn't being offered things that I was saying no to."
Executive producers Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner offered Garner the chance to play Kathryn McSorley-Jodell, a controlling mom who puts together a camping trip as a way to celebrate her husband Walt (David Tennant) turning 44. What is supposed to be a relaxing trip becomes a test of marriages.
Based on a British comedy, the show's writing was a major factor in Garner agreeing to return to series TV.
"Just flat out the writing was so much fun to say, and David can tell you that I had a really hard time saying it. I mean, being in a scene with David and saying, 'Do you want me to have a dysfunctional pelvic floor for the whole of your birthday weekend?' Like, who gets to say that every single day at work?" Garner says. "There were things that I got to say that I felt like no one else gets to say these lines."
It helped that "Camping" isn't requiring Garner to commit to a network series like "Alias" with 22 episodes a year. The initial season of "Camping" will run eight episodes. Couple that with the series shooting in Southern California so Garner could still be a mom to her own three children, and she was ready to pack her tent and head to the woods.
Her motherly duties came in handy for Garner to play the role. She and her children love to camp in their backyard so much it's become an annual tradition.
Tennant doesn't share his co-star's enthusiasm for camping. "I assumed I would hate camping because I do quite like home comfort and a shower and not smelling, clean under crackers. These things are important," Tennant says. "I have only been proper camping once. And it was sort of a disaster. I went to a music festival and we got rained on and I woke up the next morning. There was rivers down the side, either side of the tent we were in.
"I resisted briefly. And then I just surrendered and part of me kind of went feral and kind of loved it, but I've not rushed back. I don't know how. I'm not a natural camper"