The new football film “Draft Day” hit theaters this weekend. 

In the film Jennifer Garner plays a lawyer and a capologist. She is one tough cookie. Check out what she told reporter at the film’s press conference.

I loved your character! I loved the fact that you were always the smartest person in the room, probably in real life, too. But there are so many women in sports these days that really hold those positions, including the woman you were playing. Could you speak to that, about how many women are in sports behind the scenes that we never see?

I love my character, thank you so much, and I wish I was as smart as Ali, even for a day. But I do think she’s a woman in a man’s world, and she does it seamlessly. And I had the privilege of shadowing Megan Rogers at the Cleveland Browns who is the capologist there, and I just basically stole everything from her—from what she carried in her arms, to the way she dressed, to the way she carried herself. Meghan is someone who never needs to show you that she knows everything, she just holds it inside, and, if necessary, she brings down a hammer. So that’s what I loved about Ali. I think that what makes women so great in these high up positions in sports teams or NFL overall is that they can keep their emotions in check, and their brains can do a lot of things at once. Because if you’re going to be a capologist, you’re basically business affairs plus you’re thinking of the art of football, plus you’re thinking, what’s your team’s future, what has been important in the past—you have to have so much going on in your brain at once, and, let’s face it, we’re just good at that.

I understand that you are really a football fan, that you know this. So, when you got this, did you say, “It’s dream come true time. This is the part I’ve been waiting for twenty years to be able to play”? 

For sure, and besides that I was doing a football movie of this caliber with Kevin Costner. To do a sports movie with Kevin, and have it be his first football movie was just like, totally pinch-me kind of material. But yes, I grew up in West Virginia, which is very much like how you picture Texas with Friday Night Lights. Every Friday night we were at the game, and I was at every single game because I was in the marching band. And then my Senior year I left the marching band, which was scandal at the time, and was the water girl for the team. So I traveled with them; I didn’t miss a game, and I loved it. I don’t know that I really knew that much of what was going on, but I cared which end of the field we were on with my whole heart and soul. So I’ve been a legitimate fan for a long time. Now that I have kids, my husband will have the Patriots on, and I see what’s happening, but I’m kind of running around making sure he can sit and watch calmly is really what’s happening.

I was going to ask you, are you guys a football house, and what do you especially teach your daughters? Like, do you say there’s no limits, like football’s not a boy’s thing? 

I don’t want any of my kids to play football actually [laughs]. Are we a football house? —We’re actually a baseball house. If I were in charge of things, as much as I love baseball, and as much as I’ve grown to dream about what happens for the Red Sox, you can’t help it. To me, sports are like a soap opera. You think, oh, you know, when I first was dating Ben, I never watched baseball, I didn’t really care—if I may say—about baseball. But if you watch three or four games in a row, you learn just enough to kind of hook you in, and then it’s the same as a soap opera. Right? If you watch three or four, you get just enough of a story line to kind of grab you, and that’s why people are so into them. It’s the same thing, and now I’m totally addicted to baseball. But, believe me, when the playoffs happen, it’s all Tom Brady all the time.

This is technically a sports movie about football, but it’s also a relationship movie about various people. And of course your character with Kevin’s character, they have a little. Aside from what’s going on that day, it’s what’s happening in their relationship and your character being pregnant. So I was just wondering, for you, did kind of the emotional aspect and the fact that she’s early in her pregnancy and you know, she has this boyfriend who’s kind of going through all this other stuff. How did that work for you? Was it just all the script? 

I loved it. I loved the way the relationship was written. I loved that Ali is trying to find a balance between being vulnerable, and honest, and saying, Look, this is what I need. That balance versus, I’m a professional, and by the way, I’m a grownup, so you don’t have to handle me with kid gloves. I’m not asking you to change your world, but this is something we need to deal with, this is how I’m comfortable dealing with it, so are you going to be a grownup and deal with me, or are you going to try to run away? And I just think, I try to model myself after her in so many ways, and this is one of them, that she is just not afraid to say, This is the deal. Ready? What are you going to say? You know, let’s play ball here. I love that we are catching this relationship at such an intense moment aside from what’s happening with them at work.

You’ve had the good fortune to work with both Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, so, compare and contrast.

I knew this was going to happen. I feel like they’re my kids in that, if you ask me which one’s my favorite, it’s whichever one I’m with. Today it’s Ivan. Don’t hold that against me when we’re doing the junket for Pale Blue Dot because I just worked with Jason, and during that movie I was like, wow, I really like working with you, Jason. But they are very similar. You can really see what Jason has learned from his dad, or gleaned from watching him on set. Ivan has this passion for performance, and there’s nothing more exciting as a performer than having someone after every take come up and have ten notes that they can rattle off without looking at a piece of paper, without having to think it through. You just love it because he let’s somebody else—somehow he is able to watch the shot and still focus on the performance at the same time. He would come in and say, You know what, let’s just change it completely and let’s this time think about this on this line, cut out this line, stop feeling this here. And working with Jason in January, I thought, oh they’re so similar in that way. There are so few directors who really direct like that. You know, who really are in it with you and can say, I think you were starting to feel this, can you pull that out a little more? And you think, How did you know that I was starting to feel this? So I adore both of them. I feel really, really lucky to be in the Reitman club.

Jennifer attended the New York premiere of the film on Thursday at Landmark Sunshine. She looked chic in Dolce&Gabbana. The evening was sponsored by Bud Light and the party was held at FC Gotham. Guests enjoyed Bud Light, Bud Light Avion Straw-Ber-Rita’s and other custom Avion cocktails.

-Brigid Ronan