Jennifer Garner is looking back on her screen legacy — one her three kids are surprisingly not as familiar with.
The actress, 54, shares Violet, 20, Fin, 17, and Samuel, 14, with ex-husband Ben Affleck, and shared during a conversation with Vanity Fair how they perceive her on-screen persona.
© InstagramIn a video shared on July 9, the actress watched scenes from some of her most iconic roles, including films like Catch Me If You Can and Daredevil (in which she co-starred with Ben) and TV shows like The Last Thing He Told Me and, of course, Alias.
Why Alias made Jennifer more "brave"
The JJ Abrams series, in which she played special agent Sydney Bristow, was the project that elevated her to stardom, earning her a Golden Globe and multiple Primetime Emmy nominations.
"I think it just made me more brave all-around to have gone through something like that particular series," she gushingly said of the show's impact on her professional and personal life. "It comes up in my personal life absolutely all the time."
Jennifer's three kids finally watching Alias
Yet, as it turns out, her three kids have still not actively watched it. "My kids have never really watched it," but when they came across one of the show's most iconic moments online, from the season two episode "The Telling," which includes the line: "Francie doesn't like coffee ice cream," she had to show it to them.
"They asked me, and I said, 'Can I just show you that episode?'" Jennifer recalled. And once they watched, they couldn't help but exclaim: "Mom, that's so cool!" Jennifer concluded: "I'm so proud to be a part of it."
© Getty ImagesThe Alias "Francie" storyline
In the well-known scene from the season two finale, Jennifer's character Sydney offers coffee ice cream to her roommate and best friend Francie, who takes a bite. Sydney then excuses herself to go to her room, where she quickly pulls out a gun.
"Francie" then confronts her with a weapon of her own and the line: "I just remembered, Francie doesn't like coffee ice cream," and reveals herself to be Allison Doren, a genetic doppelgänger who killed Francie at the top of the season and assumed her identity.
2026 marks 25 years since Alias first hit screens, and speaking with Parade recently, the mom-of-three looked back on how much her breakout role taught her about not just acting, but also being more in command of her physicality and stunt work.
© Getty ImagesWhat 25 years of Alias taught her
"Alias taught me so much. It was like acting boot camp," she told the publication. "I learned how much I could handle in a scene. I learned I could handle props and fight and another language and all of these things and camera angles. All at the same time."
She also learned French for the second season of the thriller series, which she ended up employing for The Last Thing He Told Me decades later. "Another language comes in really handy because I speak a lot of French [for this season of The Last Thing He Told Me], and I don't speak French, which anyone who watches this season will know very quickly."
© Getty Images"But, I do know how to work really hard and learn my lines in another language and for that, I'm grateful," she noted.
