Daredevil Alum Jennifer Garner Discusses Fake Boobs, Bathroom Struggles And More While Recalling Experience With Her Elektra Costume

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner in 2003's Daredevil movie
(Image credit: 20th Century Fox)

Before the MCU was a twinkle in our eyes, Jennifer Garner was among the first wave of Marvel characters to be adapted to the big screen for 2003’s Daredevil starring Ben Affleck. Following the movie surpassing its 20-year anniversary earlier this year, the actress recently talked about all the behind-the-scenes woes she went through to be superhero ready. 

When Jennifer Garner was cast in Daredevil, she had recently made her turn as Sydney Bristow in ABC’s espionage action series Alias. She had just gotten used to obscure outfits and stunt fighting, but it sounds like playing Elektra was a lot. As she recalled: 

I had to be cut out of and sewn into the pleather pants every time I had to pee, and that was like a 45-minute undertaking, so I definitely held it. I had so many chicken cutlet fake boobs in to make Elektra's boobs. I think there were like three on each side of different sizes, and everything was pushed up and out. I was just this close to a wardrobe malfunction at all times. There's not enough tape in the world to make this stuff safe.

There you have it. Sure, Jennifer Garner looked super good as the badass assassin and love interest to Ben Affleck’s Matt Murdock, but at what cost? The actress had to be sown into her outfit whenever she needed to use the restroom, and yes, she donned fake boobs at the time to resemble the comic book character. As Garner continued: 

I was so involved in the fittings that I was able to advocate for myself what I was going to need to be able to move. Because I knew I was in stunt rehearsal by then and] what kind of support I needed in my shoes and support I needed in flexibility, [the support] I needed in the pants or whatever they were to be able to fight because I fought. I fought a lot.

Garner spoke about her costumes on Daredevil while breaking down her best looks from movies and television shows over the years with Glamour. Check out the full video below: 

Non-MCU Marvel Movies

Following Garner starring in Daredevil, she went on to reprise the role in the oft-forgotten Marvel movie, 2005’s Elektra. While Daredevil had done alright for itself commercially, the spinoff was an outright failure, and Garner has yet to star in another superhero movie since. The character of Daredevil, however, has since found a new life with the Netflix Daredevil series starring Charlie Cox, who is set to return to lead the cast of Daredevil: Born Again. Cox previously made a cameo as Matt Murdock in Spider-Man: No Way Home, marking his entrance into the MCU. 

Jennifer Garner may not be showing up in any upcoming superhero movies anytime soon, but you can see her in her new series, The Last Thing He Told Me, now streaming on Apple TV+. 

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.