Jennifer Garner as Eve Saks in Dallas Buyers Club

Jennifer Garner, the star of films like Pearl Harbor and Elektra and wife of actor-director Ben Affleck, plays a doctor in Friday film Dallas Buyers Club.

Nominated for six Oscars, Dallas Buyers Club tells the story of Ron Woodruff (Matthew McConaughey), an electrician and hustler in 1985 Dallas, who, after being diagnosed with AIDS, smuggles in drugs to help himself and others combat the disease.

What surprised you most about the story?

Well, to play this doctor, I went back and read everything I could find from ’81-’82 to about ’88-’89 — all the medical journals, everything fed to the public, everything I could find having to do with HIV and AIDS. With medical journals, it’s like reading something in Greek. I don’t know how much went in, but after enough hours, I did start to be able to say, ‘Okay. This puzzle piece wasn’t here back then. They hadn’t found this yet’. In all the research I did, I never saw Buyers Club mentioned once. So I think it’s pretty cool that there’s history happening right in front of us and we don’t always have the full story.

What was the one specific thing you wanted to make sure you accomplished when you set out to do this role?

It sounds so corny, but I wanted to stay grounded so the boys could fly. I wanted to be the quiet one that was with them but not trying to match them or not trying to compete with them. Just to be kind of a quiet through line so they could give these performances of their lives. And honestly, every day I just wanted to never screw up a take because I didn’t want to waste any of their energy. They were putting a lot out there and not giving themselves a lot back. So the last thing I wanted to do was joke around or not know my lines or flub a mark or anything. I just wanted to be good.

What was the most surprising thing you discovered about your character?

My character is an amalgam of several people. They did not tell me that. And so, I spent a long time trying to find her on the microfilm at the library, and googling and reading all these journals and saying, ‘Gosh, they talk about this specific journal in the movie and she’s not in there anywhere’. I finally called them and said, ‘I am so embarrassed. I cannot find Eve Saks’, and they said, ‘Oh, we forgot to tell you she’s made up’. So, Eve Saks as such did not exist.

But imagine the pressure the medical industry was under at that time to come up with something, an answer, any kind of cure, any kind of explanation, anything to help prevent it. Reading even Time magazine from that time period, you’re reminded of the huge fear and the incredible bigotry that showed its ugly face because of that fear and loathing, and how much people were isolated who had anything to do with the disease. It was a huge thing to be a doctor working with HIV and AIDS patients.

What was your experience like the first time you saw the film?

I saw it at home on my computer screen, sadly! (Laughs) But I was so proud of Matthew and so proud of Jared (Leto, who plays an HIV-positive transgender called Rayon). I knew that Jean-Marc (Vallee) was doing a good job, but I was really thrilled for him when I saw the film. In order to shoot it that quickly, and to make the kind of sense that he made from this really big story that crossed years and years and years, Jean-Marc had to be decisive. He had to be specific. He had to have all of this in his head the way any director does, but moving at warp speed. And he did. They kind of leaned it towards the possibility that maybe there were romantic feelings between my character and Ron (Matthew’s character). Jean-Marc said, ‘You know, we do not need this. This is not this movie. This is too sentimental. Let’s take it out.’

So how’d the weight loss go for you because that’s what everyone is talking about with the other guys!

Well, I had a new baby. I had lost more than either Matthew or Jared before we ever started the movie, so I’ll shove that in their face! But no, I was so happy to be eating. I didn’t do it in front of them, but I was glad to be eating.

When did you first see Matthew and Jared lose all that weight and what was your reaction?

Well Matthew, we’d all been seeing him lose weight in pictures before he ever got the job. And then I went down to New Orleans to do a camera test and I saw him. I knew he was in there. I chatted with him and was totally normal, and then I went into another room and went, ‘Uhhhh’ [takes a deep breath] and collected myself because it gave me the shakes to see him look so ill. And then the amount of weight he lost from that day over the next five weeks was just alarming.

Whatever you see on screen, it was so much worse in person. He just put plumpers in his jeans and in his cheeks when he was trying to look more healthy and tanned himself. We would all feel better when he was wearing his plumpers, but we knew that they were fake.

Jared, on the other hand, got the job and just stopped eating. And you just couldn’t look at him, because as another human being, all you thought was, ‘I need to get some chicken broth in this boy’! I kept saying, ‘You know, my daughter has a cold and I made some homemade chicken soup and there’s nothing in it. Do you think…?’ and he’d go, ‘Nope’. I just left it alone because it was really their journey and they didn’t want me pushing food on them. They were really trying to do something. They never made a big deal about it.

I have to say I feel like as much credibility as the weight loss gives their performances, their performances transcend the weight loss in my opinion.

Was it disturbing to have to deal with this daily?

Awful. I hated it. I actually hated making this movie — and I never say that — because I was so disturbed watching these boys do this to their body. I just wanted it to be over.

Was it a hard movie to leave at the end of the day and go home?

It’s different for women. Not to condescend to men, but we have to multitask on a whole different level. I had three kids (Violet, Seraphina and Samuel) there with me. So the second I had a minute, I was nursing. I was pumping. I was trying to arrange what was going to be for dinner that night and telling teachers, ‘Okay, the kids will be back Tuesday with their dad and I’m still going to be here until Friday.’

Is it still a pretty even balance when you’re working and Ben’s (Affleck) not or Ben’s working and you’re not?

Yes. I mean, we try our best. It doesn’t always work out that way. It’s tricky. We make it work. We have great grandparents. His mom has been in town a lot. We have really close friends that are godparents for our kids. But you need parents. My jobs just aren’t as intense as his. I make it home for bed and I make it to drop them off at school. And I have days off. But our kids are used to seeing us a lot. We’re actors. We’re unemployed a lot of the time. Ben was home for a year. I’ve been home most of their lives. So they’re used to fresh cookies when they walk in the door and that kind of stuff. I got home last night and there was a note from my seven-year-old, ‘Mama, please make my favourite brookies’. It’s these brownies that are cookies! So it was 9 ’clock and I made the cookies so she could have them in her lunch today because that’s what you do.

Have you talked with Ben about your role in Dallas Buyers Club?

I talk to him about everything. Yes, of course.

Did you ask him for advice?

He’s just always telling me, ‘Simple is better. Simple is better, Jen. Just keep it simple. Don’t get seduced by what they’re doing. Keep it simple, keep it simple’.

TRIVIA TALK

Matthew McConaughey lost 47 pounds and Jared Leto 30 pounds to play their respective roles.

Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling had initially expressed interest to fund and star in the film, but things didn’t work out.

Leto stayed in character as Rayon (in picture) throughout the process of filming!

Hilary Swank was initially cast as Eve Saks, but opted out because of scheduling conflicts.

Why will you watch Dallas Buyers Club? Tell t2@abp.in