If there’s a new skill to master, Jennifer Garner is already signed up.
For season one of The Last Thing He Told Me, the actress learned how to turn wood on a lathe. For season two? She laced up boxing gloves.
“For season 1, I knew that Hannah would be turning wood, so I spent months learning to turn wood at a lathe with this amazing guy, Aaron Hauser,” Garner, 53, said.
“I just wanted to feel what that felt like. We did end up using it, but it was really just to feel the pace of it, the patience of it, and to try to help that infuse my system.”
This time around, Hannah Hall is more fighter than woodworker.
“For season 2, I knew Hannah had prepared to fight, so I boxed a lot leading into it,” Garner revealed.
The apple TV + thriller, based on Laura Dave’s bestselling novels, picks up five years after Owen (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) disappeared, leaving Hannah and Bailey (Angourie Rice) to rebuild. Now, the stakes – and punches – are higher.
“In the five years, they’ve really built their relationship, they rely on each other,” Garner explained of the dynamic.
“Hannah has done everything in her power to keep Bailey safe…But they’re a team now. They’re united.”
She added, “When things do go awry very quickly, very quickly, you really see all of those plans that Hannah made to keep them safe have to fall perfectly in line in order to stay one step ahead of danger — and they do sometimes, they don’t sometimes.”
Garner recently reflected on the “crazy things I have done for my job,” writing on Instagram: “I am grateful that my job asks me to learn bits of so many things. Grateful for patient teachers. And am grateful for everyone here who plays along.”
Woodworker. Boxer. Former on-screen dolphin. Just another day at the office.
