Reese Witherspoon & Jennifer Garner Remember James Van Der Beek: ‘Devastating' (Exclusive)

Jennifer Garner and Reese Witherspoon spoke to “Extra’s” Terri Seymour at the L.A. premiere of “The Last Thing He Told Me” Season 2. Reese raved that the new season is action-packed!

Reese shared, “It's really giving ‘Alias' vibes.” Turning to Jen, she said, "You can see her in the first episode — you kick so much ass!"

Jen smiled and said,  “I really do like a fight. Why do I like such a fight? I'm a nice southern girl.”  

Reese added, “Well, I've seen her work out. I mean, it's intense. Once we worked out so hard, I broke my foot.”  

Garner confirmed, “This is true. She kept going.”

Reese went on, "It's so true. Jen's like, 'It's just a light workout. It's just, we're gonna do a light workout.' I broke my foot.”

Terri wondered it Garner’s kids had ever seen her in “Alias,” and  Jennifer replied, “I showed them one episode a couple of years ago and they were like, ‘Wow.' And I was like, 'Do you want to see another one?' But no, there's no rush… they have plenty of time to watch anything. I think it's weird to watch your mom, don't you?”  

Reese agreed. “Yeah. I wouldn't want to watch my mom in a show. But I will say, isn't there sort of a resurgence of people watching, like, bingeing ‘Alias' again?”

“Yes!" Jen confirmed.

"It's so cool," Reese said. Jen agreed, "Yeah, I know. It is really wild."

Terri asked, “And this time around, with all of the action and the running and the stunts, was it easier on the body this time around?”  

"Um, than it was 25 years ago?” Jennifer clarified. "No, but I do know how to train for it, and I really do love the process, and I love when the stakes in a scene are so high you have no choice but to fight for your life. It just gives the scene so much energy and it's a really fun day at work.”  

Terri asked, “You're both executive producers on the show... Is this a great partnership that we're going to get lots more of?”  

Reese said, “We can only hope so. There's so many more books that we could turn into TV shows, but maybe one day we'll actually do something together. That would be a dream come true.” 

“That is something we've talked about for over 20 years. It's going to happen,” Jen teased.

Last month, Reese and Jen chatted on FaceTime for a post-holiday catch-up posted on Instagram. During the call, Garner revealed that 20 years ago, Witherspoon told her to never put a celebrity’s name in her phone under that actual name.

Terri had to ask, "So, what name is Reese in your phone, Jen?”

She revealed, "Well, I've changed it, but for years you were Rita Weathers. And sometimes I would text Rita Wilson thinking it was you. And then I finally, I had to reorganize everyone's fake names, which I do because of you. Thank you.”  

Reese revealed, “I do get a lot of Rita Wilson's emails because people have us under RW.”  

Reese quipped that she has Jennifer in her phone as Sydney Bristow, saying, "That's her alias, don't tell anybody... That's the worst mom joke ever. That's her alias, get it?" (Sydney Bristow was, of course, the name of Jen's "Alias" character.)

On a sad note, they also reflected on the loss of James Van Der Beek, who died this week at 48 after a battle with colorectal cancer.

James will appear in the upcoming TV series “Elle,” a prequel to Reese’s “Legally Blonde.”

Witherspoon said, “I want to extend my most heartfelt condolences to his family. A beautiful family.”  

Jen added, “Beautiful, Kimberly and those gorgeous kids."

Reese went on, "Kimberly and the beautiful children. And he was such a man of high character and high faith.” 

Jen said, “Pure integrity. Yeah, faith, integrity, family guy... Yeah, we all grew up together.”

Reese agreed, “Yeah, all of us. So, it's a devastating loss. And also, I want to say that he did one of his last performances in a Hello Sunshine show about Elle Woods. It's coming out this summer. So, you get to see him and his beautiful performance. And all those young actors were so moved by how generous he was. So, just... it's devastating.”