Jennifer Garner and Angourie Rice Talk Building Their Relationship Before Filming The Last Thing He Told Me

Jennifer Garner and Angourie Rice play a stepmother and stepdaughter forced to suddenly find common ground on The Last Thing He Told Me, but off screen, their experience getting to know each other was a lot more relaxed.

"It was the absolute ultimate luxury to have time beforehand together," Garner told TV Guide. The Last Thing He Told Me, based on Laura Dave's novel of the same name, was created by Dave and Spotlight screenwriter Josh Singer, who is also Dave's husband. Before filming kicked off on the Apple TV+ limited series, the married co-creators invited Garner and Rice into their home to prepare.

"We had script sessions in their backyard with strawberries and vegan donuts and tea and coffee," Rice said. "And Josh Singer would read all the other characters and the stage directions, which was such a treat. We could really dissect it and pick out moments where we see a shift in Hannah and Bailey and their dynamic."

"And not only did we have time with them," Garner added, "but they would go back and rewrite based on what we had read and what we had sparked to, and ideas that we had."

That collaborative spirit helped the actors make the roles their own, even as they used the book as a touchstone. Garner's Hannah and Rice's Bailey anchor the series, which follows their search for answers after the disappearance of Bailey's father and Hannah's husband, Owen (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). The TV adaptation makes some changes to the novel's story, but even details from the page that didn't make it to the screen still informed how Garner and Rice played their parts. 

"The book was our ultimate resource. I mean, beyond having Laura there on set herself," Garner said. "We used it as our backstory, we used it to enrich a scene. We went over the book every single day before scenes."

Hannah and Bailey's investigation takes them from their floating home in Sausalito, Calif., to Austin, Texas, where the bulk of the series takes place. The Last Thing He Told Me filmed in both locations, which meant the actors spent a lot of time in the Texas heat. "It was this special kind of heat," recalled Rice, who is Australian. "Australia gets very hot. But that was different." 

"We took full advantage," Garner said. "We loved UT. My dad's an Aggie, so that's front and center for me, but we loved being on the campus. And our first night there we met up and went down the river in a little tiny boat shaped like a little car and just watched it all go by."

For Garner, faithfulness to the story also meant learning a new craft: Hannah is a woodturner, and the actress committed to learning her character's art. "I knew that I was only going to turn wood once or twice in the show, if at all, and but I wanted to know more about Hannah," Garner explained. "I had an incredible teacher. His name's Aaron Hauser, and we worked together every week for hours. It got to be where I would be there for five or six hours because I just wanted to see a project through to completion. And we started off just doing absolutely nothing and worked our way up to bowls."

"There is nothing more absorbing and more meditative than having a block of wood on a lathe and slowly catching ring after ring and pushing it until you've created something out of it," she said. "I love the process."

That process is, naturally, an apt metaphor for Hannah and Bailey's relationship. As they pull threads that put them both in danger, they're forced to rely on each other, and the series chips away at their uneasy dynamic until what's left is trust. For the stars, that journey toward understanding is what resonates about The Last Thing He Told Me. "It's about a girl who doesn't know how to have a mother and a woman who doesn't know how to be one," Rice said. "That really connects them. And I think that's the root and the heart of the story."

The Last Thing He Told Me premieres Friday, April 14 on Apple TV+. New episodes will be released each Friday.