Jennifer Garner Didn’t Know What Christopher Walken Was Doing When She Worked With Him
Jennifer Garner once opened up about what it was really like working with veteran actor Christopher Walken on ‘Nine Lives’.
Celebrity
Jennifer Garner once shared that Christopher Walken could be a real mystery sometimes when they did their first movie together.
by Antonio Stallings
Published on January 27, 2025
Jennifer Garner worked alongside King of New York star Christopher Walken in the family-friendly feature Nine Lives. After their collaboration, Garner revealed whether or not Walken lived up to his mystique.
Christopher Walken | John Lamparski/Getty Images
Walken took a break from playing the more disturbed characters he’s known for to do Nine Lives. There, he played a whimsical magician and owner of an exotic pet store that couldn’t have been further from Walken’s usual roles in the past. Walken worked alongside Kevin Spacey and the Elektra actor, who had nothing but kind words about the Batman Returns star. She hoped that Nine Lives, where Spacey played a cat, would help reintroduce her older co-stars to the younger generation of movie-goers.
“This movie proves to be a fun family experience. It’s not an animated movie. It’s not a realistic movie. It’s just a fun family, all ages, kind of silly movie. I hope kids are introduced to the brilliance of Christopher Walken and that all of Kevin Spacey’s fans have fun seeing President Underwood as a cat,” Garner once told About Mom.
Garner had an especially fun time with Walken, who had little in common with the more tormented characters he’s played. The only similarity between Walken and some of his other on-screen counterparts might’ve how quiet he was on set. So much so Garner had trouble understanding what, exactly, Walken was up to.
“And also, Christopher Walken is so quiet when you’re acting with him. You can’t really tell what he’s doing. And when he turns around and whispers to the cat, he’s like, ‘Listen, Fuzzypants.’That really had me laughing. So, I would say those are the things that made me laugh after the fact just watching the film,” she said.
Speaking with This Mama Loves, Garner clarified, however, that Walken’s silence didn’t mean he was acting crazy.
“Christopher Walken did not do one crazy thing. He was quiet and on time and knew his stuff and was clever and pleasantly funny and completely un-crazy. So, that was Christopher Walken,” she explained.
Walken was well-aware of his reputation for playing psychotic characters. It’s a lane that’s been paying off nicely for him ever since he started his acting career. Apart from not having kids, his knack for playing sinister characters could also be considered his key to success. But it also affected the way some people would interact with him, even those who he shared the same business with.
“You know, I once sat next to Walter Matthau on an aeroplane. And for a very long time we didn’t say anything. Then suddenly he turned to me and said: ‘I know who you are! You’re the guy who plays the crazy guys! You know, you got to have your feet on the ground to play crazy guys all the time.’ And I said [… he leaves a beat, timing what will surely be a classic payoff] ‘Yes – that’s absolutely right,’” Walken once said in an interview with The Guardian.
However, in his older years, The Deer Hunter star made an effort to move away from those kinds of roles. Walken kept bugging his agent to find him a much tamer role as something like a wholesome parent.
“Something where I have kids who ask, ‘Dad, what should I do?’ and I’ll say, ‘Well son, just try to do the right thing,’” he once told Express.
Additionally, Walken reminded fans that his lifestyle was significantly different from the villains he received so much praise portraying. He insisted he was just as regular of a guy as someone could be with a $50 million net worth.
“I play a lot of crazy guys and in fact my life is not that way,” Walken said. “I live quietly in a nice house and my wife and I are about to be have been married for 50 years. I don’t think I’ve ever played a character like myself.”