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Are there any other mind-blowing kitchen hacks you think everyone should know? Up your butt, Sean.
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Hey, what's going on, everybody?
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For First We Feast, I'm Sean Evans and you're watching Hot Ones.
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It's the show with hot questions and even hotter wings.
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And today, we're joined by Jennifer Garner.
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She's a Golden Globe Award-winning actress with more than 60 TV show and film projects over the course of her more than two-decade-long career.
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Her latest movie, though, is the family feel-good Yes Day, which is currently streaming on Netflix.
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Check it out, but first, the wings of death.
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Jennifer Garner, welcome to the show. Thank you so much.
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I am I guess I'm really excited to talk to you and and very happy to be here.
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How are you around the spicy stuff?
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Because one time I did see you eat It looked like a serrano pepper out of your garden and you immediately chased it with a garden hose.
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How are you feeling possibly reliving that trauma here today?
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I I don't add sriracha to my mac and cheese. I'll just say that.
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I am I've just so happy with vanilla and chocolate.
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But okay, but that's all right.
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I'm I'm a I'm a an adventurous person.
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Classic hot sauce, it says. I'm fine. It's not a problem.
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So, your new movie, Yes Day, mirrors the real-life Garner family tradition inspired by the 2009 children's book whereby for one day only, you'll acquiesce to your kids' demands, whether it's eating ice cream for breakfast or camping out in the backyard, how did that annual holiday tradition originate?
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Do you have any advice for the parents who may be inspired to do the same after seeing this film?
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It originated because of the 2009 book.
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I also had a 2009 edition. Her name is Serafina.
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It was her favorite and because she really dreamed of having her own yes day to the point that I finally had to give it to her.
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Follow Amy Krouse-Rosenthal's children book yes day.
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That's the instruction manual.
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And then can you talk us through how to make a Fruit Loop pizza?
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And was that a dish that you were able to perfect on your first try or did it take some experimentation? Fruit Loop pizza. You ready?
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Pizza dough, marshmallow fluff, into the oven.
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Very hot oven, very hot until the pizza dough is cooked and the fluff is browned.
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It comes out, sprinkle liberally with Fruit Loops and then um enjoy. No problem.
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So as a leading lady turned startup co-founder with Once Upon a Farm, I'm curious your perspective on a question that we once asked your Dude, Where's My Car co-star Ashton Kutcher.
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Where are pitch meetings more likely to be parodies of themselves, Hollywood or Silicon Valley? Really great question.
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Definitely I have been in pitch meetings where everyone is talking lingo and you just feel like do you guys get how do you do you get that you're a parody of yourselves?
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But you know, we're all in it together and so I have a laugh.
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But when I go to grocery store meetings and I make sales calls to different grocery stores, they talk in another language too.
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Don't think that they don't.
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They're like, you know, this could do really well in the wet wall and I'm like, what's a wet wall?
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It's where they are, you know, sprinkling, spraying down produce, and it's There's a whole other world in of CPG.
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What's the most mind-blowing thing you've learned making food at commercial scale?
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You know, from the processes to the relationships, it's such a fascinating industry from the outside looking in.
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I love the supply chain of it.
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I love actually um going, you know, my farm is part of the supply chain, my family farm in Oklahoma, and I love watching how we choose what to plant because we don't have refrigeration on our farm.
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We have to choose to plant sweet potatoes, pumpkins, squash, something that can be transported at its peak ripeness so that it can immediately be cold pressure processed, put into a pouch, and sent straight to grocery stores right away.
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And that's That's just really cool, and thinking about all the different ways that fruit and vegetables Excuse me, come to us and trying to do it in a way that impacts the environment the least, but also gives you the most robust organic, biodynamic, you know, farm-fresh goodies for your babies.
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Not to fish for free consulting, but we have been playing around with this idea of a hot sauce for kids.
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As As an expert in the category and a parent yourself, do you have any words of warning or wisdom before we dive into that?
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I wouldn't spend a ton of money on it, Sean.
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I I think I'm doing really well.
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That's your first one ever, right? Mhm. Catching a little burn. Just a little. It's easy, though. Mhm. Riding the wave. Mhm. Riding the wave.
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So, for a lot of Jennifer Garner fans, the entry point was the charismatic, disguise-wearing, taekwondo-practicing CIA agent Sydney Bristow in Alias.
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The show was JJ Abrams directorial debut and cinephiles to this day can see the Alias blueprint in JJ's later work.
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At what point did you recognize or buy into him as an action sequence directorial maestro?
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Oh my gosh, I'm so happy to know that people can see Alias in his later work.
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I didn't I've never heard that before.
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That I'm going to take even more of a personal ownership of everything JJ then.
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Um JJ knew exactly what he wanted to do.
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He was a super clear director from day one.
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I think he writes as if he's going to direct and has always written with the visual in mind and also the music in mind.
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He's such a musician that it's really easy to see the music in how he wants something spoken or done.
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And the first time I was on a harness and climbing a wall um he and I were both kind of like, "Oh my gosh, this is this doesn't happen in Felicity and this has never happened to me before."
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But we were both so up for it and so eager and excited for the challenge and he always had the camera moving no matter what.
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It was always like zooming next to me, zooming past.
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He just was never afraid of just going for the shot. Hellfire's double.
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Okay, that doesn't sound very Methodist. No problem. There we go.
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So I know that farming has been a theme throughout your life from your mom's farm in Locust Grove, Oklahoma to the orchard that you have in California to even co-founding a farm-to-highchair baby food company.
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As a seasoned beekeeper, do you have a favorite fun fact or story about the fascinating and complicated life inside the hive?
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You only need to know a little kids version of what happens inside a hive to be able to put on a whole getup and open a hive and see it come to life.
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My kids, when they were babies, could say drone, worker, let's spot the queen, guard bees.
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It's like they are the most fascinating, coolest creatures on the planet.
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One of the byproducts of this pandemic is an explosion in in apartment agriculture.
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Do you have any pro tips for uh people who are just now starting to embrace the green thumb lifestyle?
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I would say the most important thing is just to do it.
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Experiment with how much water you give them, experiment from with what you put in the soil.
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And it's just there's nothing better, especially if you have little kids.
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Little kids are more apt to eat something they've grown and they can pick fresh off the vine themselves than anything else.
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That's the best way to teach veggies. Doing some Taekwondo? Yep.
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Knocking out these wings? Uh-huh. I'm a hot wing ninja. I see it. Fine. It's fine.
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Okay, Jennifer, we have a recurring segment on our show called explain that gram where we do a deep dive in our guest's Instagram, pull interesting pictures that need more context.
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And one pervasive theme throughout your feed is nature inspo, particularly these remote cabins.
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Does that infatuation stem from a longing or catharsis in escaping the eye of Hollywood or is that just uh reading way too much into that?
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I have a little bit of a an apocalyptic fear.
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Um and really I think I would like to know that I could live off the grid on an island somewhere that was always in a beautiful fall colors. So, yeah.
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Do you have a lasting memory from sitting courtside with Steve Ballmer?
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He really does seem to let it loose during the Clippers games. He was amazing.
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The Ballmers are incredibly um focused on early education in the United States as am I.
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And so, I was there on behalf of Save the Children and as a friend of theirs letting me bounce ideas off or donating to different projects that we might be starting up or interested in.
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So, we would sit and talk really intensely or at least Connie and I would about kids and poverty in America and rural poverty and birth to five and the brain science and then Steve would get up and just be like Um so, yes, it was a memorable That was really fun.
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I have no problems, Sean. This is nothing.
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I'm trying to get a read.
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Trying to get a read, Jennifer.
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It just seems like you can poker face. Yeah.
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No, I am I am poker facing.
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So, 13 Going on 30 is one of the most enduring cult classics of the early 2000s even recently being referenced in Ariana Grande's thank u, next music video.
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Have you given any thought to why that film in particular, its special ingredient that's allowed it to have this everlasting place in the pop culture zeitgeist?
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Um I think there's no bigger wish fulfillment for a 13-year-old than to be 30.
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And conversely, I don't know any, you know, 30-year-old who wouldn't like to dip back into her 13 year old body and see what that was like. So, I don't know.
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There's just that kind of there's a it's just so whimsical and it was actually such a perfectly constructed movie by the late great beautiful soul Gary Winick.
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Plain Jane had so and continues to have so much meaning for me and it did at the time as as well and I don't know that I like really carried the theme with me as much as I carried the feeling of playfulness, you know, that I had in my body while we made that movie and just the ebullience of that character and of that time are all kind of connected in this warm hazy fuzzy rosy glow.
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Oh, honey badger doesn't give a [ __ ] I mean, that's what it says.
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And it's true of the sauce. I feel that. Mhm.
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I'm aware of honey badger. I feel that.
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Okay, Jennifer, it's not every day that we're graced with the presence of an ambassador from West Virginia and that's a distinction that was actually made official when in 2007 you were named West Virginian of the year by the Charleston Daily Mail.
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Every year your hometown of Charleston hosts the Vandalia Gathering celebrating the uniqueness of West Virginia's mountain culture.
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How would you distill the mountaineer lifestyle to a complete outsider?
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Um gosh, um I feel like you really held back until number seven and then there's a lot of that honey badger on there. up. It's a steep ramp up.
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Yeah, it's a steep ramp up.
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Um you really had me feeling kind of cocky. It didn't show.
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Um Okay, well, I will tell you about the Vandalia Festival that my memory of it, I mean, I would go to a Vandalia Festival Vandalia Festival right now and take you with me because I know you'd love it.
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Um it's just like bluegrass bands playing under every tree, tall tale contests where people tell you the most charming, charismatic version of a tall tale you ever heard.
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But anyway, the mountaineer um attitude is mountaineers are always free, don't step on me, leave me alone.
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Um Just leave us in our mountains.
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I'm a little more like, "Hey, y'all, you know, come on in. Have some honey badger."
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On the topic of those tall tales, how much did the folklore affect you or touch you as like a child?
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Like did you ever have uh nightmares about the Pleasant Point Mothman or anything like that?
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the Pleasant Point Mothman. Um I don't know.
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I definitely believe there's no good story that can't be improved upon.
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Um my dad worked for Union Carbide and they had a camp for all the kids and it was called Carbide Camp.
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And um there was somebody there who told ghost stories in the We were deep in the mountains somewhere just being filled with Carbide propaganda and singing songs about this chemical plant.
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Um and yeah, I was terrified of the monsters that they told us about that hid in the woods.
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Which is the Union's superior regional delicacy, the fried bologna sandwich or the pepperoni roll?
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Pepperoni roll, hands down. Gino's, thank you.
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I'm a little nervous now after that honey badger. Whoa. Going in.
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Only way out is through, Sean.
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I'm just following you through the door. That's hot. That's hot. Yeah. That's hot. Take a lap. Take a lap. That's warm. That's hot. That's very hot. Okay.
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So, here at first we feast.
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We're acutely aware of the way that the celebrity world has flooded the food world in recent years with varying degrees of credibility, but your bonafides, they're just as credible as they are humble as proven by your pretend cooking show.
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I've seen you try the Cooks Illustrated method of softening butter with a warm glass.
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Are there any other mind-blowing kitchen hacks you think everyone should know? Up your butt, SEAN. I GET IT. I get it.
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Flashbacks to that that serrano chili. Yeah. Um Golly. Golly net. Um okay.
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Let's think about kitchen hacks.
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The only other one I can think of is also to do with softening butter because it is so important and vital that you start with room temperature ingredients if you're going to bake.
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So, if you have eggs that are cold from the fridge, put them in a bowl of lukewarm water.
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And if you need softened butter right away, you don't want to wait for the you don't want to wait at all, then you you can you can um put it through a cheese grater.
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How big a deal was it for you to get a Ina Garten cosign?
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She actually says, "She is adorable and smart and not at all performing. That's just who she is.
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I think she's really special."
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She would never do this to me, Sean.
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Ina would She would be appalled at this behavior. Actually, she wouldn't. She would find it funny.
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I mean, the fact that Ina Garten, whom I revere and who taught all of us to cook, the whole world, when I'm doing the pretend cooking show, it's an homage, obviously, to Ina.
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It's just more than I can handle.
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You've said that you're a geek for food TV.
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What's uh what's your what's your all-time cooking shows Mount Rushmore?
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Barefoot Contessa, In the Kitchen with Martha. I mean, I can do Giada. Bobby Flay can be fun.
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I mean, I can do them all.
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I mean I mean, obviously, it's like Julia Julia freaking Child, but I feel great.
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Not fun, but I think after the last one, almost like a vacation. Yeah.
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Oh, no, the kick happens later. Oh, no. No, no. Oh, no. Oh, no.
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Wait, first it wasn't bad.
18:34
So, I know that you didn't always have Hollywood aspirations.
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In fact, when you were a young girl, you were more drawn to regional theater and dance, studying ballet for 10 years.
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At the peak of your dance training, what's your personal record for consecutive pirouettes?
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I've never been a good pirouetter, and that's why I'm sitting here in this chair instead of just happily teaching ballet somewhere in a little studio in West Virginia.
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What advice would you give out for picking out the perfect pair of pointe shoes?
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I don't I think don't just take whatever pointe shoe you have at face value.
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Don't be afraid to cut out the shank at 3/4 and to break the box and um yeah. That's what I would say.
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Technical vernacular pro tip from Jennifer Garner.
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And then finally, as theaters prepare to open, can you provide us with a a quintessential classic production that you'd recommend to someone who's never been to a ballet before in their lives? Oh my gosh, so many.
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Maybe see Ratmansky's Firebird, maybe see Don Quixote because it's just so vibrant and and see Isabella Boylston as Kitri.
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I'm shaking, but other than that, cheers. Cheers. Oh misery. But going back in. Going back in.
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Jennifer Garner committed to the process. Yeah. Okay.
20:23
Okay, Jennifer Garner, here we are at the closing credits of our spice-packed meal.
20:27
But before you go, I want to touch on one last thing and that's a commencement speech that you gave at your alma mater Denison University.
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In your parting words to the graduating class of 2019, you told students that they're lucky if is {quote} "65% happy."
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While your brain drowns in hot sauce, I have to ask, why is it important to try to live at 65% happiness and where did you come up with that specific number?
20:58
Well, um um well, I I mean I just think that it's easy to just kind of always be looking ahead and saying when I get X, I'm going to be happy.
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When I get Y, especially right after you graduate from college you know, you don't have like that goal that's easily achievable and you think, well, when I finally get my own apartment, when I finally get engaged, when I whatever it is.
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But it's like just be happy now.
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And I think this last year has been a really um a really good That last one was very The last year has been um you know, has taken care of a lot of that for a lot of people anyway.
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Wise words from Jennifer Garner through the pain of it all, but still standing after her bout with the wings of death.
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And now, Jennifer Garner, there's nothing left to do but roll out the red carpet for you.
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This camera, that camera, probably just the camera you're looking at though.
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Let the people know what you have going on in your life.
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Um I have a movie opening.
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It's uh starting March 12th on Netflix. It's called Yes Day.
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And um it is about saying yes and um that's mostly something that I would recommend unless this guy calls you.
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It's just a joy-filled, colorful day of yes after a year of no. That's all. Great job, Jennifer. Great job. America! Thank you.
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You ask really great questions to really great interview. Thank you. Thank you, Jennifer. I appreciate that.
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And uh I in the end it was all it was all worth it to go through it, you know.
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23:38
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