USA: JENNIFER GARNER PLAYS TEENAGER WHO MORPHS INTO AN ADULT'S BODY OVERNIGHT IN HER NEW MOVIE '13 GOING ON 30'

Record ID: 388803

  • Title: USA: JENNIFER GARNER PLAYS TEENAGER WHO MORPHS INTO AN ADULT'S BODY OVERNIGHT IN HER NEW MOVIE '13 GOING ON 30'
  • Date: 2nd April 2004
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (APRIL 2, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) JENNIFER GARNER SAYING: "Actually, those shoes thank God were pretty comfortable, but they were literally five inch heels so my biggest thing the day of Thriller was to not fall and break my ankle, but it was so so much fun, it was a total throw back, a combination of m
  • Embargoed: 17th April 2004 13:00
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  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVABXCZWIVDC6E27QZJZJJGU5F2K
  • Story Text: Jennifer Garner plays a teenager who morphs into an adult's body overnight in her new movie, "13 Going On 30".
    In "13 Going On 30" Jenna is having a tough time at school and at home, and it's never more apparent than when her friends desert her at her 13th birthday party.
    So, when Jenna's best friend Matt, gives her wishing dust to celebrate becoming a teenager, Jenna wishes she was thirty. But, when Jenna (Jennifer Garner) wakes up the next morning, she's no longer living at home with her parents, instead, she's a thirteen year old living in a 30 year old's body, in a plush apartment, and has a hunky boyfriend.
    And that's not all, Jenna quickly discovers that not only is she supposed to be the hot shot editor of one of New York's top magazines, "Poise," her staff are scared of her because she's also a hard nosed bitch, and that completely freaks her out.
    Another thing Jenna can't understand, is why Lucy, who was deeply cruel to her at school, is now apparently her best friend and a colleague at the magazine, and yet childhood pal, Matt (Mark Ruffalo) is nowhere to be seen.
    Determined to get to the bottom of it all, Jenna instructs her assistant at the magazine to track down Matt for her. When the two eventually meet, Jenna finds out that she broke Matt's heart in high school, but now he's forgotten all about her and is about to get married; the problem is, Jenna realizes that she's in love with Matt, she always has been. "13 Going On 30" begins in 1987 when Michael Jackson was named king of pop and "Thriller" was at the top of the charts. In the movie, Jackson's track is played at a party to try to liven things up and Garner takes to the floor to show off her dancing prowess, and the actress says it's her favorite scene in the movie.
    "Actually, those shoes, thank God, were pretty comfortable," says Garner "but they were literally five inch heels, so my biggest thing the day of Thriller was to not fall and break my ankle, but it was so, so, much fun, it was a total throw back, a combination of my childhood and my adulthood, it was perfect, it was such a fun day."
    Not so for her co-star, according to Mark Ruffalo, dancing to "Thriller" was enough to make him think twice about doing the role at all.
    "Yes, yes, dancing Mark Ruffalo review," says the actor, "yes, that was a new one for me, I've never done anything like that and I was dreading it, and literally, I almost didn't do the movie when I read that I had to do it, but then they trained me and it turned out fun."
    Naturally, when the star of the movie is a magazine editor, there has to be a glamorous wardrobe of clothes involved, and that was enough to sway Judy Greer.
    "I really wanted to be in the movie, but then I was like, I bet I'm going to wear some really cool stuff, you know, like I bet they're going to dress us really well, and when I went to my first fitting I nearly peed in my pants because it was like Marc Jacobs, Marc Jacobs, Jimmy Choo, Jimmy Choo, like Dolce & Gabbana, it's like all the designers that I loved, like looking at a magazine you know, and I was like oh my God I get to wear all this stuff, it was so cool, I was really excited."
    Columbia Pictures and the cast of "13 Going On 30" got into the spirit of all things teenage at the premier in West Los Angeles on Wednesday night, (April 14, 2004).
    On the red carpet, everyone was reminiscing about their teenage years and remembering the aspirations they had at the tender age of thirteen.
    Jennifer Garner told Reuters she had very definite ideas about her career path back then.
    "I wanted to be the grown up girls in the ballet company," said Garner "I never looked at Hollywood, I didn't have to look further than my older sister to know who I wanted to be."
    Andy Serkis spent months learning how to moonwalk like Michael Jackson for the big dance number in the movie, but when he was a lad it was leg movements of a different kind that fascinated him.
    Serkis told press that his teenager hero was, "Bruce Lee, Bruce Lee definitely, I had posters up all over the walls, I tried a bit of Kung Fu, was terrible at it, learned judo, wasn't very good at that either."
    Mark Ruffalo was happy to share his good and bad memories of that era saying, "I remember pimples, my first girlfriend and my bike and my skateboard."
    The "Material Girl" was front and center during Judy Greer's teenage years, and the comedienne was desperate to be just like her.
    "I wanted to be Madonna," says Greer "because she was really cool, she was from Detroit, and she didn't live at home with her parents."
    Garner's boyfriend, Michael Vartan was at the premier, and according to him, Jennifer still has teenage moments.
    "Oh constantly, well at home, we don't live together, but on the set of "Alias" she (Jennifer) is even more like a twelve year old sometimes, this role is a bit of a stretch for her."
    But Vartan was a little more tight-lipped about his romance with the recently divorced Jennifer, saying "It's the one thing we like to keep private, but it's going very well, thank you." "13 Going On 30" opens throughout North America on April 23, 2004.
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