Jennifer Garner gets candid about parenting teens, why her kids don't watch her movies

Jennifer Garner is in one of her toughest parenting roles yet in her new TV series "The Last Thing He Told Me."

The real-life mother of three discussed why the Apple TV+ series (streaming now) was a challenge for her in an interview with InStyle published Thursday. "It was very difficult for me to play a character who's not maternal at all," Garner told the outlet. "I've played a mom quite a bit and that is actually lovely, because it's very easy to slip into mothering some awesome young actor."

In contrast, Garner's "The Last Thing He Told Me" character Hannah is a stepmother to Bailey (Angourie Rice), who actively resists a relationship with her after Hannah's husband mysteriously disappears. The two have to work together to find their missing link.

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Garner – who is mom to Violet, 17, Seraphina, 14, and Samuel, 11, whom she shares with ex-husband Ben Affleck – said in an interview with People on Thursday that she has a "huge heart for teenagers" even though the one she parents in "The Last Thing He Told Me" isn't her biggest fan.

"I see how hard it is to be a teen right now," she said. "The teenager in the story … she's mean."

Garner added: "My kids aren't mean – they're teenagers, but they're not mean. Not to me. So that was funny. Just a different layer of teen to deal with."

The "13 Going on 30" alum has the support of her children, but they aren't exactly first in line to watch her shows or movies.

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"My kids don't love to watch me in things," she told InStyle. "I think it's a little weird to watch your mom kiss someone or cry. … They don't want to see me sad and they don't want to see me in a romance. They don't love seeing me play someone else's mom, honestly. I don't know if they'll watch this."

Garner's three children will, however, tune more into Affleck's projects. "It's different. They don't mind watching their dad," she said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jennifer Garner on parenting teens, why they don't watch her movies