Cringeworthy! Jennifer Garner is still super embarrassed by her reaction that went viral during the 2018 Academy Awards. The Love, Simon actress stopped by The Ellen DeGeneres show to explain what went down when cameras caught her calmly clapping in the audience on March 4, and she then suddenly looked panicked and worried.
“I can’t even look at it. It’s too embarrassing,” Garner, 45, said on the Friday, March 16, episode while covering her face. “What is happening?”
“What’s happening?” the host asked. “No one else seems upset or disturbed.”
“I have no control over this. What am I doing?” Garner said while looking at the video on the screen. “I started getting texts, as you can imagine. People were saying, ‘What were you thinking? What’s happening?’ and I try really hard not to see myself online, but she was a little unavoidable.”
She added: “I don’t know. I regret, regret, regret.”
DeGeneres asked if the actress knew what was going on at that moment that caused her reaction. Her response? “Not even at all. We’re standing — there’s Chris Messina, there’s Nicole — I don’t know why. What is wrong with me?”
“I don’t know. There’s nothing wrong with you!” DeGeneres, 60, said. “It’s weird because when I don’t smile, I look like I’m unhappy because that’s just the way my mouth is, so if I look like that, I just like that. But you do look disturbed.”
“I want to just punch her in the face!” the Alias alum quipped about herself. “Not really, I don’t, but still.”
The actress’ facial expressions received some concern from viewers wondering what caused her to react that way. One user tweeted the night of the Oscars: “What realization did Jennifer Garner just come to?” The video then inspired thousands of other memes, including some from Garner herself, which she shared on her Instagram Story on March 6.
What realization did Jennifer Garner just come to? pic.twitter.com/pWtycEDEVs
— bobby finger (@bobbyfinger) March 5, 2018
“Congrats to Shape of Water. Maybe I should date a fish,” she joked in one video. She then referred to her Capital One Venture card commercials, saying: “Hey, Jimmy Kimmel, what’s in your wallet? Wait, where is my wallet?” She also gave a shout-out to Girls creator Lena Dunham with whom she’s working: “Can’t wait to work with Lena Dunham. Wait, did I sign a nudity waiver?”
The 13 Going on 30 star attended the 90th Academy Awards on March 4 to introduce Eddie Vedder’s performance, and she stunned in a cobalt blue Atelier Versace gown and matching Piaget earrings.
