Interview by Elin Hilderbrand and Tim Ehrenberg

Photography courtesy of NBC Universal

Jennifer Garner stars in Elin Hilderbrand's The Five-Star Weekend

HILDERBRAND: I learned from working with and watching Nicole Kidman work on The Perfect Couple. She took her responsibility very seriously. The younger cast members would be looking up to her. Do you have that feeling, as well?

GARNER: This felt like an ensemble, so it didn’t feel like it was me. But all of my sets tend to be really nice places to work. If you are lucky enough to be getting to make a show as fun as The Five-Star Weekend, it should be fun to do. What I bring when I show up is a whole lot of energy in the morning, and then, and I just try to be prepared, and I really love the process. I love the people doing it. I don’t mean to be a nerd, but I just feel like I really love a film crew.

EHRENBERG: Everyone always says that adaptations are nothing like the book. We heard it a lot with The Perfect Couple. Does The Five-Star Weekend stay pretty close to the book. If there are differences, why are they made in a movie or show as opposed to a book?

GARNER: There are things about my character Hollis’ relationship with her daughter and the way into what happens between them on the island that's different than in the book. Sometimes that’s the cost. If Hollis’ daughter [Caroline] had had this relationship with her [Columbia] professor, then that’s a whole other person you’re casting, and then do we have to be in New York [for filming]? Sometimes it’s just that, and sometimes it’s the location that you want to take advantage of. Sometimes what’s written in the book is too internal, and you need to see it [on screen] instead of thinking about it. And there are a few things where I think our story diverges, but thematically we’re pretty close.

EHRENBERG: Had you been to Nantucket before filming?

GARNER: I had been to Nantucket for one night before to speak at The Nantucket Project with Mark Kennedy Shriver about Save the Children. That had been a super focused time. I was prepping for a movie, I had kids at home, and so I literally came in and started doing work for [Save the Children]. We had different meetings we went to, different dinners, and then we spoke, and then got right back on the plane. I never made it to a beach. To come and get almost a month there [to film The Five-Star Weekend], I just felt so in love. I loved it. I loved everyday, every minute. I loved it so much. I don’t know that I could love a place more than I loved Nantucket, especially in September. And Elin, what I loved was meeting your readers.

EHRENBERG: Which restaurants did you eat at [while filming] on Nantucket?

GARNER: We went everywhere. We went to Cisco Brewers, we went to Cru, we went to the Chicken Box. I loved Cisco Brewers, and we went to Something Natural. My house that I rented was close to it, so I went there a couple of times. [I went to] the dunes, the churches—I went to church a couple of times. We climbed [The First Congregational Church] all the way to the top.

EHRENBERG: Do you approach the role differently if the original content is from a book than just a screenplay that someone wrote?

GARNER: Having a book as a backstory and as the backdrop for an adaptation or for a job, I feel like it’s a cheat in a way. It fills in the blanks, because a play or a script of some kind really distills the action down, but a book has time to expand more and be more internal, so you kind of cheat and get to hear what the character’s inner monologue is as you’re playing it. Do I approach it differently? I really take the author’s intentions to heart and try to be really respectful of them.

EHRENBERG: When you have a character like Hollis, who was originally created by a novelist and then adapted for the screen by a screenwriter and portrayed on screen by an actor, you have three women that are breathing life into that character. What is the most Hollis thing about you, and what are some of the differences between you and her?

GARNER: I had a say in how [my character] was going to show up on screen. The thing that Hollis and I have in common is that we both cook. She’s much neater about it than I am. She’s much better at it than I am. I also have a best friend from high school, a best friend from college, a best friend from living in New York, friends from motherhood and friends from my career—I was part of a sorority, and I wish that I had left school with this scrum of girls that I’d gone through life with, and we were all meeting up to go to Nantucket and meet Elin.

HILDERBRAND: But you could throw a five-star weekend.

GARNER: I could definitely throw a five-star weekend.

HILDERBRAND: Do you evercontribute changes to a script?

GARNER: So much. I try to do it as early in the process as possible. Sometimes a writer is doing so many things, but you’re really focused on your one character, so you might have a better gauge on [whether] this arc is tracking, is this story tracking, are we following what I did with my person? Even little things like that, and also [saying] whatever would just flow out of your mouth more easily. Often, writers will write strife into relationships in a bickering way, and that can obfuscate what’s really going on. Yes, everybody bickers, but there’s usually a more interesting way to get at what the problem is than [being] snarky or biting.

HILDERBRAND: If you could plan a five-star weekend, which four actors would you invite to Nantucket?

GARNER: I can only imagine it with Regina [Hall], Chloe [Sevigny], D’Arcy [Carden] and Gemma [Chan].

EHRENBERG: What is your favorite book-to-screen adaptation?

GARNER: To Kill a Mockingbird.

HILDERBRAND: Who is your favorite literary leading lady?

GARNER: Harriet the Spy.

EHRENBERG: Is there a book that you would love to be a part of the screen adaptation of?

GARNER: Chris Colfer’s books, The Land of Stories.

HILDERBRAND: Who are your auto-buy authors—the authors whose novels you will definitely read?

GARNER: Laura Dave. I’ll read all of Ann Patchett. I’ll read all of David Sedaris, and I’ll read all of Abraham Verghese. I’ll read all of Barbara Kingsolver.

HILDERBRAND: What kind of decisions go into making a season two?

GARNER: It’s really about the viewers. Do they demand it by showing up to season one and sticking with it the whole way through? If you want a season two then please ask your friends to stream all of season one and watch it through the end of the eighth episode. That’s really what makes a decision.

For the full interview with Jennifer Garner, listen to her episode of Books, Beach & Beyond with Elin Hilderbrand and Tim Ehrenberg, out July 1. And a special thank you to the episode’s sponsors, Cartolina, Serena & Lily, Nantucket Historical Association, Book of the Month, Nantucket Book Partners, and Little Brow.