Move over Mike Tyson – there’s another ear-biting fighter in town.
Jennifer Garner has revealed she bit ‘a chunk’ of an actor’s ear off during a particularly vicious fight scene in the 2007 action film The Kingdom, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Director Pete Berg instructed stuntman/actor Sala Baker to ‘try to kill’ Garner, 53, in a battle that ended up resembling Tyson’s ear-chomping match with Evander Holyfield in 1997.
‘Can I just say that the performer, Sal, the last time I fought him was in The Kingdom,’ she said at Apple TV’s press day on Tuesday. ‘Pete Berg, who was the director, told him to try to kill me.
‘We did not have a lot of choreography, and he told me to do anything I could to survive. He did, and I did, and I ended up scrambling onto his back.
‘I bit his ear, and we have a picture of him missing a chunk of ear, because we were not kidding.’
Jennifer Garner has revealed she bit ‘a chunk’ of an actor’s ear off during a fight scene in the 2007 film The Kingdom
She compared her bite to Mike Tyson’s 1997 match with Evander Holyfield, one in which the boxing legend infamously chomped off a bit of his competitor’s ear
Garner was recently reunited with Baker for season two of The Last Thing He Told Me, where they went head-to-head again.
They fought in such a way that concerned even in the crew, but Garner assured them she had an axe to grind with him.
‘We went for it in a way that the crew — this was maybe our first or second day of shooting — were like, “Can you be careful with her?” I was like, “No, no, no, no, he’s not going to be careful. I’m not going to be careful. Just back out of the way. I have a score to settle here.” And Sal was with us the entire season. So prepare yourselves.’
Garner’s co-star, Nicolaj Coster-Waldau, was in disbelief over the revelation: ‘Can we just go over that again? You bit a piece of his ear off?’
‘Like Mike Tyson,’ she replied.
Tyson’s bite on Holyfield sent shockwaves through the sport of boxing when it happened 27 years ago.
After Holyfield won their initial match in 1996 via 11th-round TKO, the pair squared off again at MGM Grand the following year.
The rematch would infamously be nicknamed The Bite Fight after Iron Mike bit Holyfield’s ear, ending the fight with a disqualification in the third round.
Tyson bit Holyfield’s ear during a 1997 rematch at the MGM Grand
Garner’s took a bite out of stuntman Sala Baker’s ear while filming the 2007 film The Kingdom
Garner packs a punch in her new show The Last Thing He Told Me
As the star of the action series Alias, Garner is no stranger to a fight scene.
During an interview with Vanity Fair, she compared the fight choreography to that of a dance.
‘It felt like dance to me,’ she told the publication in 2016.
Garner stars in and executive produces the Apple TV thriller series, The Last Thing He Told Me.
She plays Hannah Hall opposite Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.
The first season of the Apple TV+ show premiered in April 2023 – and became the streaming site’s most-watched limited series, despite having a score of only 41% on Rotten Tomatoes.
The show is based on the novel of the same name by Laura Dave.
The premise of season one followed, ‘A woman (Jennifer) who forms an unexpected relationship with her 16-year-old stepdaughter while searching for the truth about why her husband has mysteriously disappeared,’ per IMDB.
The second season will based on a sequel to The Last Thing He Told Me – which was also written by Laura Dave, and will premiere on Apple TV on February 20.
Jennifer GarnerMike Tyson
