Jennifer Garner Recreated An Iconic 13 Going On 30 Scene For Halloween

Jennifer Garner is still 30, flirty, and thriving (well, 30 in spirit). On Oct. 30, the actor unveiled her 2024 Halloween costume in a video posted to Instagram, transforming herself into her 13 Going On 30 character, Jenna Rink, and recreating one of the film’s most iconic scenes.

Soundtracked to Jenna’s favorite song — Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” — Garner began the video by doing her present-day beauty routine in the mirror, applying lip gloss, retinol, powder, and most hilariously, eyeliner underneath her eyeglasses. She then looked very confusingly at what appeared to be a pair of Spanx before taking off her white robe for the grand reveal.

The actor entered her bathroom in the same colorful striped dress Jenna wore to her work party in the 2004 film, even bringing back her character’s baby blue butterfly necklace. However, she matured the look with her own accessories, including white ankle socks, dark pink sneakers, and a gray crossbody bag.

“Happy 20th Halloween, Jenna Rink,” she captioned the post in honor of the film celebrating its anniversary this year.

The 20th Anniversary

The 13 Going on 30 cast has celebrated the rom-com’s 20th anniversary in many ways this past year. In April, Garner reunited with her co-stars Mark Ruffalo and Judy Greer over Zoom in an Instagram video titled “13 Going on Boomer.” They got nostalgic about the movie and even recreated the iconic dance routine to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”

A couple months prior, Garner helped honor Ruffalo at his Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, where she referenced his character, Matt Flamhaff. “Mark owes this rom-com success to the scruffy hair, and the untucked cute button down, both of which became like the norm for cute guys everywhere for the next 20 years,” she said.

She then jokingly asked if Ruffalo’s other rom-com love interests, like Jennifer Aniston and Gwyneth Paltrow, had similar experiences of working with him. She nodded to the story of him almost leaving 13 Going On 30 over the “Thriller” dance.

“I wonder if these esteemed ladies enjoyed Mark's anxiety as much as I did,” she quipped. “I wonder if he tried to drop out of their films, like he did out of ours after the first rehearsal of the ‘Thriller’ dance where Mark went from kind of shocked that we actually had to do this, to antsy, to deathly quiet, to ‘Bro, this is not for me.’”