It’s most certainly not a surprise to see Judy Greer in yet another movie, as the actress tends to keep particularly busy, but Alexander Payne’s The Descendants? As my fondest memories of Greer include here iconic comedic performances in films like Jawbreaker and 13 Going on 30 as well as her TV show Miss Guided, which left us far too soon, seeing her pull the reigns on what comes so naturally to her and amp up the drama wasn’t just a nice surprise, but a notably successful effort, too.
The Descendants stars George Clooney as Matt King, a Hawaii resident who’s shocked to discover that his beloved wife is in a coma after a terrible jet skiing incident. To complicate matters further, Matt also learns that his wife was cheating on him with Matthew Lillard’s character, Brian Speer. Turns out the romance was adulterous on both sides and Brian had been cheating on his wife, Judy Greer’s Julie Speer.
While The Descendants definitely belongs to Clooney as well as Shailene Woodley who plays his eldest daughter, when Greer’s character turns up, you feel it. In honor of The Descendants’ November 16th release, Greer sat down to talk about the entire filmmaking process from the honor of being cast in an Alexander Payne film to switching gears and getting dramatic as well as her hopes to continue working within the genre in the future.
As this interview was done in conjunction with the film’s run in the New York Film Festival, it was recorded roughly a month ago and, as you’ll hear during the tail end of this video, at the time, Greer had high hopes a new TV project of hers would get the go ahead, and, according to Deadline, it looks as though she got her wish!
