Jennifer Garner reached out to friends to explain her 'disappearance' after becoming famous
Jennifer Garner lost contact with her pals as she felt "overwhelmed" by the sudden fame that came with starring in Alias.
Jennifer Garner reached out to pals to explain why she "disappeared" after becoming famous.
The 54-year-old actress felt "overwhelmed" by the sudden fame that came with playing Sydney Bristow in the ABC spy drama Alias from 2001 until 2006.
On the latest episode of the Aspire with Emma Grede podcast, Jennifer said: "I don’t remember a lot of it because the hours were so intense. But looking back, I’m aware of how overwhelmed I was. You lose a couple of years of life when you become famous."
The pressures of fame forced the Golden Globe winner to reassess her life and relationships.
She said: "You have to recalibrate. You have to find yourself. I looked back and was like, 'Wait, what happened to that friendship?' It was me.
"I didn't know that I was separating, but it wasn't like I thought I was better, it was like, 'h my gosh, what is this?'"
Jennifer initially felt "almost an embarrassment around" losing contact with her friends.
However, she added: "I have enough distance from that now to know and to take ownership of that and to call those friends and say, 'Ah, I think I disappeared there for a minute'".
Laughing, she added: "'It’s 20 years later, but hi. How you doing? What you been up to?'"
Although adjusting to life in the public eye "took a minute", Jennifer adored working on Alias alongside her co-stars, including 86-year-old Ron Rifkin (Arvin Sloane), 57-year-old Michael Vartan (Michael Vaughn), and 77-year-old Victor Garber (Jack Bristow), and the show's 60-year-old creator, J.J. Abrams.
She recalled: "The time on set was the happiest I’ve ever had. I think I’ve texted with almost everyone in the show in the last week, if not most of them in the last 48 hours!"
In 2018, Jennifer said she finds fame "startling and shocking".
The 13 Going On 30 star told CBS Sunday Morning: "It's startling to become recognisable. It's startling and shocking.
"There was a solid decade where there were five or six cars minimum - and easily up to 15 or 20 on the weekends - outside of my house at all times. I really feel the stress of it, I really - I could cry talking about it."
Jennifer also said she finds the "public scrutiny" about her relationships difficult.
The Five-Star Weekend alum - who has Violet, 20, Fin, 17, and Samuel, 14, with her 54-year-old ex-husband, actor Ben Affleck - admits it is tough having a relationship in the spotlight and says it puts "pressure to make something happen".
She said: "Scrutiny on your private life puts a pressure to make something happen. You feel a pressure to hurry up and get married, because you think that will end the 'are they engaged or are they not?' And that's true of the reverse as well. If there is any inkling of trouble, or if the tabloids decide that there's trouble, it can create trouble. But, to be honest, public scrutiny - everyone says, 'oh, you had to go through this in public' - the public isn't what's hard. What's hard is going through it. I don't look at it. I had to really get serious with myself and say this is not healthy, no one should see pictures of themselves that paparazzi have taken."
