Return To Action

Actress Jennifer Garner is going back to her bad-gal roots for an epic new movie role. Here, she shares why she is excited to get back into the action!

It has been a while since we last saw Jennifer Garner strut her stuff as a martial arts master and government agent in Alias, the TV series that launched her career. For her latest movie, Peppermint, she plays a mother bent on avenging the deaths of her family at the hands of a Mexican drug cartel.

To play the role, Jennifer embarked on a training regimen to regain her bad-ass mojo and get into killer shape.

“I did boxing, weights and crazy, inverted push-ups,” she says. “It felt great to be back working with a stunt team again. My stunt double (Shauna Duggins) and I have worked together since the third or fourth episode of Alias. She’s like my sister. For us to train together again was like old home week.”

In the action-packed dramatic thriller, Jennifer plays Riley North, a grieving widow who decides to take justice in her own hands when a court decides to free the three suspects she has identified for “insufficient evidence”. Riley then spends the next five years undergoing intensive training before embarking on a personal crusade to kill the cartel members responsible for the death of her husband and daughter.

Peppermint is directed by Pierre Morel, the French helmer behind Taken (2008), the action film that relaunched Liam Neeson’s career. Industry observers believe that returning to the action – she hasn’t played such a physical role since 2003’s Daredevil – could well give a similar boost to Jennifer’s career.

In addition to rigorous three-hours-a-day boxing and martial arts training, Jennifer also underwent Cryotherapy sessions and followed the “Body By Simone” exercise programme.