Jennifer Garner Superhero mum

“It upsets me to see my kids online, so I try not to look. But I think I need to educate myself then I feel dirty!”

There’s a moment in movies that has almost become a clich.

The girl with her hair up in a bunch and a pair of specs Deirdre Barlow would have knocked back for being too thick, suddenly shakes off her dowdy look.

She literally lets her hair down, and whips off her glasses to reveal the stunning beauty which was concealed all along.

Believe it or not but that’s a feeling Jennifer Garner, glamorous movie star and one half of a much-photographed Hollywood super-couple (the other half being Ben Affleck), envies.

Jennifer spends most of her time not strolling around cocktail parties in a slinky dress, but instead running after her three young children.

“I do feel like a librarian!” she laughed when I spoke to her last week. “I always have the urge to let my hair down and go: ‘Rawr!’

“I walk around the house all day with my contacts out, my glasses on and my hair in a bun!”

It’s hard to imagine the gorgeous and very charming Jennifer sitting before me looking like a harassed mum. But the star of Valentine’s Day and Daredevil channelled the frumpy look for her role in new movie Men, Women and Children, as an uptight parent.

The movie is a drama about how technology affects families.

Her children are nine, five and two (this being Hollywood I had to check that was their ages and not their names), so I asked Jen if technology and her children was something she thought about.

“We’ve all, as parents, got to think about that,” she said. “Technology is changing and kids are learning about things way before grown-ups are.

“I remember a couple of years ago speaking to mums with older kids and them saying: ‘There’s this new thing called Snapchat.’

“Now we need to watch for the next thing coming out.”

Raising children is tough enough as it is, and I wondered if Jennifer, who starred as superhero Elektra, and future Batman Ben Affleck had their work cut out for them when it came to raising their children in the public eye.

“It gives the kids a lot and it makes things a lot trickier for them,” Jennifer explained. Ben is so good at explaining things to them, so we’ll see. They’re so little.

“It upsets me to see my kids online, so I try not to look. But I think I need to educate myself then I feel dirty!”

“I sometimes sit with my kids and show them the stories and ask them if they think it’s true.”

Ach, I reckon these weans will be alright with a couple of superheroes as parents!