Happy Campers

Jennifer Garner and David Tennant lead a couples retreat gone wrong on HBOs Camping. Here, they settle in for a candid chat that only goes slightly off the rails.

- Shirley Li

THEIR CHARACTERS on Camping—Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner’s new HBO comedy (Oct. 14, 10 p.m.), based on British writer Julia Davis’ series of the same name— may live in a torturous bubble of passive aggression, but Jennifer Garner and David Tennant couldn’t be more comfortable together on a September afternoon in Los Angeles.

While chatting about their dysfunctional small-screen counterparts Kathryn and Walt— the married couple at the nexus of a weekend trip run wild—the pair are so in sync, they constantly nod in agreement, finish each other’s sentences, and playfully obsess over the same harem-pants-wearing costar. (You’ll see.) Garner even twirls in her heels on her way out—a perfect farewell gesture, considering how…

This project’s a heel-turn for both of you—neither of you are exactly known for ensemble comedies. Did Camping scratch an itch to do something different?

DAVID TENNANT It certainly did. It was unlike any job I’d ever been involved with before.

I didn’t know if I could do it, surrounded by people who are proper comedians.

JENNIFER GARNER There are things about TV that I love—the expectation of getting a new script and figuring it out as you go along—and I was just really hungry to do something funny.

What did you find appealing about Kathryn and Walt? They’re, to put it lightly, a little hard to swallow.