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Jennifer Garner<\/a> says she and Chlo\u00eb Sevigny<\/a> “have circled each other forever.”<\/p>\n It makes sense. Both actresses came up in the 1990s and have many high-profile projects on their respective list of credits. But, yet, they weren’t afforded the chance to work with each other until The Five Star Weekend<\/em><\/a>, Peacock’s upcoming adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand’s best-selling novel The Five-Star Weekend<\/em>.<\/p>\n In fact, none of the actresses at the center of the new series \u2014 also starring Gemma Chan<\/a>, Regina Hall<\/a>, and D’Arcy Carden<\/a> \u2014 had ever even met, much less worked together before filming last summer in Los Angeles and Nantucket, supported by a female showrunner and writer, female directors, and an all-female team of producers.<\/p>\n “Women are typically siloed off: You play you, and then maybe you have a best friend or a boss or an assistant, but it’s rarely about a sisterhood,” Garner, an executive producer on the series herself, tells Entertainment Weekly<\/em>.<\/p>\n That said, costarring with such powerhouses, “I was nervous to meet all of them, because I’m a fan of all their work,” says the actress, who adds that each woman ended up challenging her preconceptions of them in one way or another.<\/p>\n “Chlo\u00eb is so cool-girl New York City and I’m so suburban mom, but actually, she’s pretty suburban [too],” says Garner. “I was surprised by how maternal she is. D’Arcy is so, so emotional, such a connector. She’s the person who is always making sure that we have taken a picture. Gemma, I was surprised that she’s a lawyer.” (Chan holds a law degree from the University of Oxford.) “I was also surprised when we had our dance scene. Gemma could really get down.” As for Hall, “Regina has a real business mindset, and she’s a real entrepreneur. And she’s so smart. Regina’s the whole package. All of us wanted time with Regina.”<\/p>\n Over the four-month shoot \u2014 three months in L.A., then a few weeks on Nantucket \u2014 Sevigny says Garner did a lot to make sure the cast felt comfortable getting vulnerable.<\/p>\n “She really set the tone and was very open,” Sevigny notes. “We just started talking about very deep things from the get-go. And being a set of mostly women\u2026 everybody was very honest about things going on in their lives, and their past, and their struggles. It created a bond very quickly.”<\/p>\n That bond helped the cast navigate the vacillations in tone that the new series required. Their stories, after all, grapple with losing your husband, your job, your health, your connection to your kids, your sense of self \u2014 things that aren’t easily solved by shots of tequila and a \u201990s dance party.<\/p>\n