How Jennifer Garner’s Mom Supported Her Throughout Acting Career

Published: June 26, 2024

How Jennifer Garner’s Mom Supported Her Throughout Acting Career

By Movieguide® Contributor

MIRICLES FROM HEAVEN actress Jennifer Garner recently brought one of her favorite people on the TODAY show — her mom, Pat.

The two talked about family memories and recalled Jennifer’s early acting days with laughter.

“I tried to be the disciplinarian because the parents that I admired were disciplinarians, but I’m not really,” Pat, 86, said about how she raised Jennifer and her two sisters.

“We all kind of just fell in line,” said Jennifer. “I don’t know what Mom and Dad did. We respected them so much. And we were a little a little bit scared of Dad. I can’t say we were scared of you, Mom.”

“No, I don’t think you were,” Pat replied with a laugh. “Bill was very proud that the boyfriends were all a little bit afraid of him.”

In college, Jennifer’s parents supported her when she switched her major from chemistry to theater.

“We supported our children whatever they wanted to do, and we never fussed at Jennifer or anything,” Pat said, “but Bill told the people he worked with, ‘Well, now I’ll have to support her all of her life.'”

Pat’s the one who encouraged Jennifer to change her major.

Jennifer told Pat, “You said, ‘Just study what you love. You’ll figure it out if you want to go back to school later, but you’re spending all your time in the theater. Just study that.'”

“I probably did,” said Pat.

Though she loved to act, Jennifer would panic before every performance.

“Mom, do you remember every single opening night of college — what did I do?” asked Jennifer.

“Oh, she freaked out,” Pat said without missing a beat. “She worked at the barn theater during the summer. And she did enough opening nights that she got over it.”

“But until then, every opening night I called you in a panic, didn’t I? I can still picture the payphone in the theater. I cried and cried into that payphone, ‘I can’t do it!'” Jennifer recalled.

Now with most of her motherly consoling days behind her, Pat cherishes her role as a grandmother.

“I have the seven most wonderful grandchildren in the world,” Pat said proudly, later adding that her children are her “life’s work.”

For Jennifer, her mother’s hand-written memories are “the best gift in the world.”

“I’ve been writing about my life for Jennifer for her birthdays for years,” said Pat, who sends kids and grandkids letters every month.

Pat’s husband, William, just passed away on March 30.

“I was so worried about being a widow, and then one day I had an epiphany: ‘You will be all right, Pat.’ And I am. I really have been all right,” she said. “I miss him and I so wanted to tell him that I was going to be on the TODAY show.”

“He loved how much people love you,” said Jennifer. “So he would be right there smiling.”

“You want to be every bit like your mom if you have a mom like mine,” Jennifer said.

On May 15, Pat turned 86. Garner gave her mom thoughtful birthday wishes on Instagram.

“’This is a Pat Garner stan account. ♥️? I love you, Mom, happy 86th birthday! ?,’ Garner captioned a carousel of funny videos featuring her mom giving her cooking tips on video calls and lamenting about exercising,” PEOPLE reported.

Cooking is a special bond that Jennifer and her mom share. Every time Jennifer makes cornbread, she calls her mom.

Movieguide® reported:

“I call my mom every time I make cornbread—even though I’ve written the recipe in every notebook, even though I am sure I could toss it together in my sleep,” said Garner. “Maybe watching this will show you why, perhaps, I just like to call my mom.”

Garner’s cornbread aspirations are a part of her “Pretend Cooking Show” on IGTV where she films herself tackling various recipes.

Pat and Jennifer also taught TODAY’s Carson Daly how to make Pat’s blackberry cobbler.

“I take it to every potluck because it’s so easy and it’s always eaten. I never have to take any home with me,” Pat said proudly. “I recently had a potluck on my back deck and I looked over and people were getting their cobbler first.”

“I used to pick them on the back of the hill,” Pat said about her blackberries, “but the briars reached out and scratched my husband, and he poisoned them all. So I had to start buying them at the grocery store.”

Pat grew up in a farming family in Oklahoma.

“We made no money — it was a subsistence farm — but we ate well,” she said backstage. “My mother was wonderful cook, and I tell you, the best meal in the world is fried chicken, corn on the cob, fresh tomatoes, green beans and gallons of sweet tea.”

That farm is still in the Garner family today. It passed from Pat’s parents to her brother, James, and then to her other brother, Robert. And since 2017, it has belonged to Jennifer, Pat told Southern Living.