<p id=”par-1_49″><a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/jennifer-garner/”>Jennifer Garner</a> was affected in many ways by <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/jennifer-garner-said-1-biggest-worries-divorce-ben-affleck.html/”>her divorce from Ben Affleck</a>. At one point, it seemed that their break-up even impacted Garner professionally. So much so that Garner felt the need to apologize to a director for not being on her A-game amid her and Affleck’s issues.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-jennifer-garner-and-her-director-had-to-chat-about-garner-s-bad-acting”>Jennifer Garner and her director had to chat about Garner’s bad acting</h2>
<figure class=”wp-block-image size-full” id=”emb-1″><img decoding=”async” src=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Jennifer-Garner-Ben-Affleck-1.webp?strip=all&quality=80″ alt=”Ben Affleck and wife actress Jennifer Garner arrive on the red carpet at the Academy Awards.” class=”wp-image-3747230″><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck | FREDERIC J. BROWN/Getty Images</figcaption></figure>
<p id=”par-2_54″>Garner was very open about the feelings that followed after she divorced from Affleck. They announced their separation in 2015 before finalizing their divorce in 2018. Between that time period, Garner discussed some of the changes she experienced due to the stress of the break-up. A brief bout of insomnia was one of them.</p>
<p id=”par-3_84″>“When I can’t sleep—and I am not someone who typically has that problem, but I really have in the last year—and I need something to switch my brain off, it has been Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. God bless those girls. I used to think I would never watch television on my phone, but there I am, because I am sleeping next to my daughter. I’m happy to have her; she’s happy to have me,” Garner said in a 2016 interview with <a href=”https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/02/jennifer-garner-talks-kids-career-ben-affleck?srsltid=AfmBOopDc-vc4KhZ147BUTrM9H_2uTEO0wozdlA_FgenfzGW9YGe2MAj”>Vanity Fair</a>.</p>
<p id=”par-4_52″>However, the issues from divorce began to leak into Garner’s personal life as well. The <em>Alias </em>alum had trouble being intimate with her movie co-stars, for instance, when <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/ben-affleck-told-jennifer-garner-different-person-not-working.html/”>she returned to work</a>. This presented a problem when she did the 2017 movie <em>Wakefield </em>with Bryan Cranston, where he played her love interest.</p>
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<iframe title=”Wakefield Official Trailer #1 (2017) Bryan Cranston, Jennifer Garner Drama Movie HD” width=”925″ height=”520″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/chOJRaIOx_g?feature=oembed” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<p id=”par-5_64″>“When you haven’t been kissed for over eight months, it’s strange. But it’s my job. It’s nine in the morning and you think, I could really use a shot of alcohol. Then, after a take or two, after everyone has seen your boobs and love handles, you just want to take every crew member and be like, ‘Please have mercy on me,’” she said.</p>
<p id=”par-6_77″>Additionally, Garner feared the divorce had a negative impact on her acting as well. She was right in the midst of breaking up with Affleck while doing the movie <em>Nine Lives</em> with Barry Sonnenfeld. In Sonnenfeld’s memoir <em>Best Possible Place, Worst Possible Time</em>, he reflected on what it was like collaborating with Garner back then. He noted that she wasn’t performing in the film like her usual self. Concerned, Sonnenfeld approached Garner personally to talk to her.</p>
<p id=”par-7_62″>“On her last day of filming, Jennifer was a little off. We were in a grand ballroom with hundreds of extras. I took her to the side of the room and asked if everything was okay,” Sonnenfeld wrote according to <a href=”https://www.the-independent.com/life-style/jennifer-garner-ben-affleck-director-apology-b2628358.html”>The Independent</a>. “She apologized for not being at her best. Ben and Jennifer had the night before decided to get a divorce.”</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-ben-affleck-alluded-to-the-divorce-making-him-a-better-actor”>Ben Affleck alluded to the divorce making him a better actor</h2>
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<iframe title=”Ben Affleck on Dealing With Paparazzi and His Divorce From Jennifer Garner” width=”925″ height=”520″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/AUZQj5rl9rM?feature=oembed” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<p id=”par-8_118″>Affleck hinted that his divorce from Garner might’ve had the exact opposite effect on his performances. In an interview on <a href=”https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/actors-roundtable-ben-affleck-sacha-baron-cohen-delroy-lindo-gary-oldman-john-david-washington-and-steven-yeun-on-their-liberating-roles-4136842/”>The Hollywood Reporter’s Actors Roundtable</a>, Affleck touched on <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/is-ben-afflecks-new-film-the-way-back-based-on-a-true-story.html/”>his 2020 feature <em>The Way Back</em></a>. The movie was about a former high school basketball star given a second chance in his more mature years after his life was ruined by alcoholism. Given Affleck’s own personal experiences, he had a lot to draw from to inform his performance. Affleck has been battling alcohol addiction for most of his life, a condition that returned <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/ben-affleck-guarded-media-after-blamed-jennifer-garner-drinking.html/”>during his marriage with Garner</a>. It played a major factor in the dissolution of his marriage, which he might’ve been able to channel in <em>The Way Back</em>.</p>
<p id=”par-9_97″>“But for me, the movie was much more about the fact that — whether it’s having lived enough years, having seen enough ups and downs, having had children and divorce — I’m at a point now in my life where I have sufficient life experience to bring to a role to make it really interesting for me,” he said. “I’m not good enough to just invent it from whole cloth, you know? I didn’t have to do research for the alcoholism aspect of the movie — that was covered. It was the Daniel Day-Lewis approach to that!”</p>