Jennifer Garner recalls going above and beyond for 'Alias' audition

Jennifer Garner has revealed she went the extra mile to land her breakthrough role as Sydney Bristow in Alias, even though creator J.J. Abrams had written the character with her in mind.

The actress, 54, reflected on her casting during a July 9 interview with Vanity Fair, explaining that she still had to audition despite Abrams' confidence in her.

Garner recalled that the idea for Alias emerged while Abrams was working on Felicity. According to the actress, the filmmaker once remarked that he wished the show's lead character were a spy, inspiring the concept for the hit action series.

She said Abrams' wife, Katie McGrath, encouraged him to consider her for the lead role.

After receiving the pilot script, Garner described it as "the best single script I'd ever read." However, Abrams made it clear that she still needed to prove she was the right fit.

"He said, 'You're still going to have to audition. I mean, I wrote this with you in mind, but you have to audition,'" Garner recalled.

Determined to stand out, the actress searched the Yellow Pages for a nearby martial arts school and enrolled in karate classes to prepare for the physically demanding role.

"I started taking karate class with like five- and six-year-olds," she said, adding that she quickly progressed through the belt levels.

At the end of her audition, Garner surprised the casting team by asking if they wanted to see her karate forms before demonstrating the skills she had learned.

The effort paid off, and Garner starred as double agent Sydney Bristow throughout the series' five-season run from 2001 to 2006.

Looking back, the actress said the role transformed both her career and her confidence.

"Alias was so far outside of anything I had done," she said. "No one had thought of me for action. No one had thought of me for a tough role."

Garner added that portraying Sydney "changed me as a person," saying the experience made her more confident and fearless, describing the series as "boot camp for acting."

Although Alias remains one of the defining roles of her career, Garner admitted her children—Violet, Seraphina and Samuel—had never really watched the series until someone referenced one of its famous lines.

After seeing an episode, she recalled, her children told her, "Mom, that's so cool."

Since Alias, Garner has gone on to star in projects including 13 Going on 30, Juno, Dallas Buyers Club, Deadpool & Wolverine, and most recently Peacock's The Five-Star Weekend.