“This movie shows Jennifer in a way that we haven’t seen her before,” says Arkoff Roth. “Even though she’s known for the fearless action role she plays on ‘Alias,’ we recognized her abundant talent as a comedienne. For anyone who has spent time with her, or even seen her being interviewed on television, it’s immediately obvious that she has fantastic comic timing. She’s a very funny person.”
“What’s interesting about Jennifer is she is this incredibly open, effervescent, wonderful woman,” says Matthews. “ When she walked into the room to meet us she embodied this youthful yet wise spirit of Jenna Rink.”
Having the good fortune to have found Garner to play their leading lady, the producers’ next task was to bring in a director with a bold, fresh approach to the material. That turned out to be independent film director Gary Winick, whose feature film Tadpole won the directing award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2002. “I was offered a lot of romantic comedies after Tadpole, but I chose 13 Going on 30 because it had more substance. It’s about second chances,” Winick declares. “It’s about getting everything you ever wanted only to realize that none of those things make you happy, and then having a second chance to make the right choices.”
Another facet of the story that appealed to him was how complex and imperfect all the characters are. “In the story we come to understand what each person is going through and know them a little better — and maybe ourselves as well,” says Winick. “I’m not trying to sound artsy about it. It’s an entertainment, but it does have something to say that’s really meaningful.”
Apart from his attraction to the story, a deciding factor for Winick was the casting of Garner. “Jennifer was a huge reason why I wanted to do this movie. She has both the vulnerability and the strength of personality to take us on Jenna Rink’s journey. The levels she brought to her performance turned out to exceed even my wildest expectations.”
As with everyone on the project, Garner quickly became charmed with Jenna and her struggle to get back the life she has left behind. “What gives the story such resonance is that we get to see what happens when Jenna makes the choice to be popular and what road that leads her down,” says Garner. “I love that when she wakes up she is suddenly 30 years old has to find out what happened in her own life. She has to piece together her own history like she’s had some kind of crazy amnesia. She’s ultimately given the chance to go back and redo her life, but she has to fight for it.”
Once on board, Winick found that he had jumped into a project heavily fueled by estrogen. “Three female producers and a female star,” he laughs. “But thank goodness for that, because they were pretty focused on the dilemmas facing 13-year-old girls. Not only were my producers women but they also had 13-year-old daughters. It was perfect.”
Jenna’s best childhood friend, Matt Flamhaff, is a slightly overweight, solitary adolescent, who evolves into an unconventionally handsome and interesting 30-year-old photographer. The producers immediately set their sights on the fast-rising actor Mark Ruffalo (You Can Count on Me, In the Cut) for the role.
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