Few actors have had a career as varied and prolific as one Ms Judy Greer. Not sure you’ve heard of her? You’ve definitely seen at least one of her works. Greer first rose to prominence in the late ’90s for her role in the black comedy, Jawbreaker, as Fern “Vylette” Mayo. She went on to score minor appearances in films like What Women Want and The Wedding Planner, but she really hit her stride as the “tell-it-like-it-is” best friend in the effusive rom-coms of the early aughts. These slew of roles cemented her position as one of Hollywood’s most famous character actors, a term nominally defined as playing “unusual, interesting, or eccentric characters,” but essentially signifying all those supporting actors you recognize but can’t name. Examples of some would be “the teacher in Freaky Friday” or “mom from Twilight,” or any actor whose appearance might trigger a reaction within you like that one Leo meme. Despite their decade-spanning careers, character actors are rarely recognized for their impressive body of work, a phenomenon especially evident in the case of Judy Greer’s career.
With over 250 acting credits to her name, her work runs the gamut of genres, moods, and mediums: She’s been on hit sitcoms like How I Met Your Mother and Modern Family, lent her voice to cartoons like Bojack and Archer, and been in every IP franchise that’s come out in the last decade — and yet, she’s still been relegated to that “one actor” you pause the movie to look for on IMDB (cue the Leo meme, again!). To right some wrongs and pay my dues, I’m dedicating an entire list to highlight the best of Judy Greer’s long and illustrious career — I mean someone’s got to!
5. The Descendants
If you want to talk about range, can we talk about how Greer was in a literal Oscar-nominated film? The Descendants is a family dramedy about a family coming together and picking up the pieces following a tragic accident. The story unravels slowly, rapidly swelling to its emotional climax in the last few minutes. An exceptional scene from this last act features Greer confronting her ex-husband’s mistress with anger and then — forgiveness. It’s her only appearance in the movie, but her stripped-down performance proves that Greer can do more than goofy character roles when given the chance.
4. 13 Going on 30
Taking two of the aughts most beloved movie tropes together, this time-travel body-switch story follows a girl whose consciousness is sent to her future self following a birthday wish gone awry. In the future, she’s got everything she ever wanted: Her dream job, a hot semi-pro athlete boyfriend, and her best friend was the coolest girl in middle school — played by none other than Miss. Greer. As Lucy “Tom-Tom” Wyman, Greer plays the caustic best friend to the beautiful rom-com protagonist, Jennifer Garner. This is essentially Judy Greer in her element. Look at the blasé way she grips her martini! It’s perfect.
It’s like watching Michael Jordan in the 90’s or David Attenborough narrate an avian mating ritual; I believe the Japanese call this kind of perfection “ikigai.” So her character was totally the villain of the movie but she’s actually a good friend until the big reveal in the last act. I actually think selling company secrets to the rival publication is pretty entrepreneurial and dare I say, girl boss? I guess I’m just saying we just lacked the language in 2004 to understand Lucy’s side. I mean, you just don’t get to be the leader of the “Six Chicks” by playing nice ok?!
3. Arrested Development
No sitcom has a cult following quite like Arrested Development; a story of a wealthy family who lost everything and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together. The show is famous for a lot of things, but one of its greatest strengths is its batch of idiosyncratic characters. There are no small roles in the show, with each character playing an equally important part to keep the show’s intricate narrative locomotive chugging along. In Arrested Development’s zany version of Orange County, lawyers are comically incompetent and private eyes are only good for Scooby Doo-esque mask reveals and just about nothing else. Both fan favorites of the show, and played by Henry Winkler and Martin Mull respectively, Greer proves to be a capable performer among these sitcom veterans.
In her role as Kitty Sanchez, George Sr’s loyal and cunning secretary, the character duly plays into the tired “sleeping with the boss” trope, but Greer’s portrayal breathes new life into the archetype. This is Arrested Development, after all, where every cliche is a red herring and every innocuous detail a Chekov’s gun. Playing the secretary neither oversexed nor uptight, Greer’s Kitty Sanchez is the calculated right-hand man to George Sr, leaving every room not with a bang but with a flash. All in all, Kitty couldn’t have come to life without Greer’s comedic timing and delivery.
2. Adaptation
In another testament to Greer’s versatility, I want to switch gears to her performance in auteur-screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s meta-adaptation, Adaptation. In this comedy-drama, Greer plays Alice, a waitress who works at the protagonist’s (Nicholas Cage) favorite diner. After weeks of friendly exchanges, the dynamic seems to be building enough flirtatious momentum for Cage to finally ask her out. When he musters up the courage to pop the question, Alice is caught off by the proposition and her expression darkens. The shift is subtle, registering at a caliber somewhere between a poker tell and Miranda Presley’s pursed lips — yet the effect is immense. One comment under a clip of the scene call it “one of the most cringe scenes in movie history,” a compliment to Greer’s acting, above all.
2. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Remember when they did a reboot-slash-prequel of the Planet of the Apes franchise? The movies came out when I was in high school, so they totally flew under my radar (the only kind of hairy primate I was interested in at the time was a basketball player named Jake, HA HA). I was shocked to discover not only the existence of this movie but also that Judy Greer actually played the main girl-ape, Cornelia, using motion capture technology alongside the king of green morphsuits himself, Andy Serkis! Seriously, take a shot every time I say she has the range but SHE HAS THE RANGE!
1.Kidding
Kidding is a semi-biographical tragicomedy about Jeff (Jim Carrey), a children’s television show host with a dark personal life that makes doing his day job a little difficult. Greer plays Jeff’s estranged wife, and she is solely on this list because she a) gets top billing b) is in all 20 episodes and c) is a fully-developed three-dimensional character. And it only took Hollywood two decades to give her a decent role! Her career is an all-American success story that proves that when you pull yourself up by the bootstraps and work really, really hard, you’ll finally be rewarded with interesting roles — so long as you’re playing a wife or mom. She is forty-something, after all.
