Jennifer Garner Isn't as Nice as You Think She Is

By Anna Rumer

Jennifer Garner isn't as "nice" as her reputation might indicate. The Alias actress, 51, got real about the pressure she faces to be "perfect" in a new interview with Allure published Tuesday, explaining that it can be difficult to live up to the high bar people have for her when she's having a day with "blackness in [her] soul."

"The problem with, 'Oh, she's so nice' is that when I have any kind of boundary, people think of it as much more than it actually is," Garner said in the interview published Tuesday. "The problem is being recognized on a day where I'm not so nice or when I have blackness in my soul. I've definitely had days where I just can't do it. I scowl at people before they can walk up to me. I'm not perfect, and I don't think I'm rude, but I'm not good at being fake. I'm an open book of a person." 

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Garner also got real when it came to how the pressure of being in the public eye has made it difficult to be real with people, especially having gone through her 2018 divorce from Ben Affleck in the spotlight and raised their three children – 17-year-old Violet, 14-year-old Seraphina and 11-year-old Sam. "There were two decades where it was really hard to hold a conversation," she told the magazine. "Not in a woe-is-me, poor celebrity way. I was on baby watch every single day. The day after I had a baby, [the paparazzi] were watching again. They kind of rush you through your life because they're just trying to get to the next stage of something they can sell."

The 13 Going on 30 star has pushed back against her "nice" public persona before. "I'm not always just nice," she said during an October 2022 interview with Town & Country. "I can also be salty, and I can be taciturn, or I can be really serious about what I want to get done." The mother of three noted that she has no problem with setting boundaries for herself in real life. "It's not that I feel I'm underestimated in that way – I'm not afraid to stand up for myself and say, 'Just so you know, this isn't going to fly with me,'" she explained. "When that happens, I don't want you to be shocked that I'm a real person."

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