Jennifer Garner may play a mom whose daughter is battling a deadly disease in her new movie Miracles From Heaven, but she certainly didn't have to worry about the heavy material seeping into her real life.
"The great thing about kids is the minute you show up in your own house, your kids don't care what you've been doing all day," Garner told me last night at the Miracles From Heaven premiere in Hollywood. "They just go, 'Hey, mom—she did this,' 'I want that' or 'Can we do this?' or 'Let's read this book' so they force you to be in the present."
In the movie, Garner stars as Christy Beam, the real-life mom of a 10-year-old girl named Anna who was diagnosed with a fatal and incurable digestive disease. Anna was suddenly cured when she says she spoke to God during a freak accident that left her unharmed even after falling three stories to the bottom of a hollow tree.
"It was heavy, it was emotional and I felt drained but I was pretending," Garner said. "Families go through this for real. The Beams went through this for real. For me, I am very aware and grateful to be pretending this and I want to live my beautiful life."
Garner's three kids with Ben Affleck were not at last night's red carpet screening.
"My kids don't belong at an event like this," Garner explained. "They have school tomorrow and they're doing homework and practicing piano and going to bed. But also if they were to watch this movie, I'd want to be right there with them to be a part of their reaction. It has to be weird to see your mom so emotional and so connected to another kid so that was just a mom decision. But they will see it someday. I look forward to that conversation."
Miracles From Heaven is in theaters on March 16.
For more from Jennifer at the premiere, watch E! News tonight at 7 p.m. and 11 p.m.