Jennifer Garner shows off her tough side in 'Peppermint'

Reuters - Actress Jennifer Garner's personal life has been featured heavily on celebrity gossip sites in the past week, so it came as little surprise that at the premiere of her latest film 'Peppermint', television crews were disallowed from the event. Turning up in black, the actress spoke only to studio STX Films' in-house crew to discuss her new film in which she plays a woman out for revenge against not only the gang members who murdered her husband and daughter but also those who allowed the killers to walk free. "I do love playing a mom because that's when your stakes are the highest," she said, adding "There's so much at stake for every mother out there and for this particular role, I was interested in doing action again but the action has to be grounded in a real sense of drama and where the stakes are really really high in an organic way and in this movie that all really came together." The film is directed by 'Taken''s Pierre Morel, who was keen to point out that this film is far different from the Liam Neeson-driven action thriller. "It was a different approach from what I did with 'Taken' because 'Taken' was a rescue movie whereas this is more of a revenge movie. I don't like revenge but more of a justice movie but it was interesting to see 'ok, how do we revisit that? What happens when your family is completely destroyed and what do you do?' and I think that's a different approach from what I did before," Morel said. The film picks up five years after the death of her family and Garner's Riley North has transformed herself into an 'urban warrior'. Her co-star Taylor Ritter was impressed with the actress, dubbing her "the new Schwarzenegger" at the premiere. 'Peppermint' goes on release in North America on September 7.