Jennifer Garner Chokes Up During Podcast Chat With Molly Sims

Jennifer Garner got emotional as she remembered a teacher who mentored her while she was a young dancer, saying it thinking of them made her "choke up."

The Hollywood star, 52, learned ballet when she was growing up and said one particular teacher had a huge impact on her. She said the "amazing" teacher was also "tough," but that she proved to be "gold" in her life.

Opening up on Molly Sims' Lipstick On The Rim podcast, mom of three Garner said: "She was everything to me, she was a mentor. She was so tough.

"I remember the day she told me she was proud of me. I had won a scholarship for a summer intensive, a dance intensive at the North Carolina School of the Arts."

Sounding tearful, the Yes Day actress went on: "She wrote me a note and said, as the head of the board of the West Virginia whatever, I am very pleased to tell you that you have won this scholarship, and as your teacher I want you to know I am proud of you."

"It makes me choke up thinking about it because those people in your life who ask so much of you, they are gold, they are gold," she added, with her voice wobbling.

"I wanted her approval, I still do," she said of the teacher.

Garner went on: "I hope whenever I see someone be tough on my kid, if they have integrity, I am just so grateful to them, because that shapes you."

The Alias star also shared how she didn't always think she would pursue acting as a career, as there were so many other avenues she wanted to try—and she didn't think it was possible anyway.

"I never wanted... I didn't think I would be an actor," she said. "I didn't think that that was a possibility. And I didn't think about it anyway. There's so many jobs I've always wanted to do. I still feel that way. I'm still like, any minute in my 50s, I'm going to go back to school and study, I don't know."

"But it was just kind of what I did," she explained. "And it was an extracurricular that took over my life."

The actress has three children with ex-husband Ben Affleck , whom she split from in 2015 after being married for 10 years. They share Violet, 18, Fin, 15, and Samuel, 12 .

Newsweek has emailed representatives for Garner for comment.