Jennifer Garner Is Still Mentored by Her Childhood Ballet Teacher, Who She Brought to “Five Star Weekend” Set
Jennifer Garner Is Still Mentored by Her Childhood Ballet Teacher, Who She Brought to “Five Star Weekend” Set
Angela AndaloroTue, August 25, 2026 at 9:20 PM UTC
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Jennifer Garner with her childhood ballet teacher, Miss DentonCredit: Jennifer Garner/Facebook; Jennifer Garner/Instagram -
Jennifer Garner appeared on Aspire with Emma Grede, where she told the host about learning about herself during a visit to her hometown
The actress, 54, talked about the people she’s looked to as mentors in her life, including her childhood dance teacher
Garner and her ballet teacher remain close to this day, with the actress bringing the instructor along to the Five Star Weekend set
Jennifer Garner is still learning about her relationship with inspiration.
During an appearance on Aspire with Emma Grede, the actress opened up about a new realization she had while visiting her childhood home in Charleston, West Virginia.
Garner told the host, “I was going through my closet. [My mom] asked me to take stuff back to California or get rid of it or whatever. But I read through all of my old notebooks, because I’ve always kept notebooks. You’ll always see me with one in my hand.”
The trip down memory lane reminded Garner that “I was a performer as a kid” and credited the adults in her life who poured into that as they came across her path.
“My first mentor... I’ve kind of had these pivotal people in my life all the way. And my first one is my ballet teacher. I talk about it all the time, Nainalu Denton Passanetti. Miss Denton was my ballet teacher. She ran the local ballet company. She ran and still runs the local community theater, and she taught math at our high school,” she shared.
Garner recalled how much she admired Miss Denton for how she carried herself. She said, “Man, did I luck out, because she is someone who has integrity. I had never heard a curse. I never saw her drink. I saw a work ethic that was just about teaching a bunch of kids and bringing theater to this town in West Virginia.”
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The actress even brought Miss Denton to set while recently filming The Five Star Weekend, a film where she plays Hollis, who, while grieving her husband’s sudden death, assembles her closest friends from throughout her life for a weekend at her Nantucket beach house.
“I wanted to please her specifically. And I still do. She came to the set of Five Star Weekend to watch me, and she gave me notes after scenes. But there is something about like, I really love having someone in my mind and I’m trying to please that person,” Garner explained.
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Of the realization, Garner continued, “It’s interesting because I feel like earlier in my career I had almost like a similar thing that I would always be trying to make someone my boss. And when I started in my first company, I always talked about this idea, like I decided that the board was my boss until I was like, ‘Wait a minute, there is no boss.’ ”
Garner stars in Five Star Weekend alongside Chloë Sevigny, Regina Hall, D’Arcy Carden and Gemma Chan in the series, and the whole group of actresses — none of whom had met before they were cast — bonded quickly on set.
“My biggest hope and wish is that we get to do a second season of this show so that we can go in knowing each other as well as we do now,” Garner recently told PEOPLE. “Although we became very close very quickly.”
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
