Judy Greer
by Daniel Robert Epstein for SuicideGirls (http://suicidegirls.com/)

When you have to produce as much work as I do, it is inevitable that some things will fall through the cracks. That’s what happened after I got to interview Judy Greer for the DVD of The Great New Wonderful. The Great New Wonderful is a well acted dramatic film about how 9/11 has affected a number of different sets of people. Greer plays Allison Burbage one half of a married couple they must deal with the fact that their son has weight issues.

Since I first spotted Greer as Esther Bloomenbergensteinenthal in the cult hit, The Hebrew Hammer, she has gone on to become very well known for her comedic roles in Arrested Development, 13 Going on 30 and American Dreamz. But Greer has chops that can cross between comedy and drama, making her the sexiest person on Earth.

Buy the DVD of The Great New Wonderful

Daniel Robert Epstein: What point did you get onto The Great New Wonderful?

Judy Greer: It didn’t feel like there was a ton of time between when I got the part and when we started shooting. So probably a little bit maybe on the later side.

DRE: Did you know you’d be working with Tom McCarthy?

Judy: No, I think they hadn’t cast that role when I became attached to it. But working with Tom was so awesome. We’re still friends. We still hang out. Just from meeting on that movie we still hang out whenever we’re in the other city. It was so fun. I actually had not seen The Station Agent before we did this film, which I’m glad about because I think then I would’ve been super scared and nervous to meet him because I loved it so fucking much. I rented it after we were done shooting. I was like, “Oh my God. I’m glad I didn’t see it because I wouldn’t have been able to even look at him.”

DRE: Was it important for you to do a totally dramatic role with no comedic elements?

Judy: Yeah, it was. It was one of the reasons I was turned on to the project. I was really itching to do something that was serious and to stop having to be the funny girl.

DRE: Do you feel like you were pressed into the comedy role?

Judy: I don’t feel pressed into it. I just feel like that’s what I am. I was hoping this would change that a little bit, at least some people’s perception of me. But I think as I’m getting older people are starting to not expect me to be the funny girl as much.

DRE: Really?

Judy: Yeah, because I’m not feeling as funny anymore. I think that the older I get, the more life experience I have to bring to roles, which give them more depth and make them more real.

DRE: Were you in New York on 9/11?

Judy: No, I was in Los Angeles. When I got the phone call that it was happening, I was getting ready in the bathroom to go meet a girlfriend for coffee. My girlfriend called and she was hysterical. This is a girlfriend who sometimes would get really upset about things. So I was like, “Oh, what’s happening now?” She told me to turn on the TV and then everything changed forever.

DRE: I’m sure you’re friends with plenty of New Yorkers, did you relate to the character in The Great New Wonderful on that level?

Judy: I do have a lot of friends in New York but I didn’t feel that it got in the way of me telling the story. I can’t even pretend to understand what everyone went through that day.

DRE: When you found out that the director of Dude Where’s My Car [Danny Leiner] was directing Great New Wonderful, did you think that was weird?

Judy: No, not all because I felt like he was giving me a shot to do something different and I was completely willing to give him a shot to do something different. Putting myself in his position as an up and coming director and having directed two kooky movies, the White Castle movie and Dude Where’s My Car? made me think, “He must be just fucking so excited to do this movie, to do something different.”

DRE: Is doing something dramatic after so much comedy really like stretching different muscles?

Judy: It felt a little bit more of a mental thing. When I do a comedy, I just goof around nonstop on set. I talk to people constantly. I make jokes. I just fuck around. On this Tom and I would go out and have a cigarette and start joking around. But then I’d be like, “Oh shoot. We have this really dramatic moment that they’re setting up to shoot and I need to be in a certain mindset for it.” So I had to be disciplined and force myself to go in the corner and listen to my iPod. Maybe as I get more dramatic roles I won’t always have to do that, but at this particular moment I did.

DRE: Do you still take acting classes?

Judy: I do. I took classes with Jeffrey Tambor for awhile before I did Arrested Development. Then I started taking voice and speech classes just because I felt that I wanted to work on having more control over my vocal quality. I thought that would be a better thing to focus on.

DRE: I think someone else on Arrested Development took classes with Jeffrey.

Judy: His class is huge. It really surprised me.

DRE: Do you feel like you need to take classes as you do more drama?

Judy: I don’t think you need to take classes. I just think that you need to act. The reason I signed up for classes was because I wasn’t working for awhile so I thought, “Well, I’m not getting jobs. I’m going to take a class to be with other actors.” It’s scary if you’re not booking jobs and you don’t really know why. I’m going into these auditions and I just started to get more and more nervous. I needed to shake it out. I think that it’s important to always keep your instrument healthy and moving and exercised. So that’s what I try to do.

DRE: Were you ever in comedy troupe?

Judy: No.

DRE: So where did this aptitude for comedy just come from?

Judy: I always say my grandpa. He was really funny. I suppose that since I was such an ugly duckling I needed to find a way to be accepted by people and it was by making people laugh.

DRE: Is it weird that magazines now put you in these very sexy poses?

Judy: I always think I look freakish. I’m always like, “Oooh.” I always have my best friend do my makeup. She’s always like, “You don’t look weird. You look good.” I’m like, “Uhh, I don’t know.” I always feel like a tranny when I have makeup on. I think it’s strange since I don’t really see myself like that.

DRE: Were you nervous about your sex scene in The Great New Wonderful?

Judy: I was nervous to do it because it was happening really late in the day. It was the last thing we shot on the second to last day. It’s a delicate thing to shoot so you just don’t want to feel rushed and you don’t want to feel cornered into showing more than you wanted to. But I was already so comfortable with Tom and Danny. I was nervous but just the usual nervous. I had already done it before on way bigger sets with bigger stars.

DRE: Jonathan Kesselman has written a sequel to The Hebrew Hammer, would you be interested if there was a part for you?

Judy: I would just have to read the script first. But I had one of the best times ever making that movie. I would do it if Adam [Goldberg] did it because Adam is one of the most fun people to work with.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck

web address: http://suicidegirls.com/words/Judy+Greer/