INTERVIEW WITH JUDY GREER ('Lucy'):
Were you a child of the 80's?
I was, definitely. I was obsessed with Madonna and Duran Duran and John Stamos and “Facts of Life” and “Silver Spoons” and “Growing Pains.”
Which elements were you happy to see brought up into this movie?
Well, I really loved “Jessy’s Girl” so I was really excited that that was there. I think that the stuff that I really loved about the 13 section had more to do with just the gawkiness of being a young kid then necessarily all the '80s stuff. I liked that – that was really fun – and the soundtrack’s going to be great, but I just loved how sweet the girls were. I mean, obviously except for the little me (laughing).
Were you anything like your younger version in the movie, or were you more like the young 'Jenna,' the Jennifer Garner character?
So much more like Jenna. I was so much more gawky and weird and nervous and geeky and dorky and scared all the time. Yeah, that little me was incredible.
What did you think when they asked you to play someone who they say in the film has had 'work' done on her face? You haven’t, have you?
No, I haven’t.
So what did they see in you?
That’s an interesting question. I think it was more exposition probably, just to like to insinuate a character who would do that, who would get a lot of plastic surgery, who would care more about her looks than her relationships. I think that’s probably why that was in there.
Have you ever done something really mean to a guy you like?
Unintentionally, probably all the time. I used to call this one boy that I didn’t really like. Oh, this is terrible... I sort of forgot about it. This boy that I went to junior high with, my friend Laura and I would call him and pretend that I was the girl that he really liked. The night we called him I said I was Rachel and that I wanted to go out with him. The next day, Laura and I saw him following Rachel around the school. She was like giving him the weirdest looks and he didn’t understand why. That’s so terrible!
That was your training for this role.
It was so funny but I swear that at the end of the day we were like, “Okay, that was us that called you last night.” And we were friends with him all through high school, too, so it wasn’t like he never talked to us again after that. God, that’s so mean. I can’t believe we totally did that.
Do you feel kids are more sophisticated now than they were in 1987?
Hell yeah. I would be terrified to have a 13 year-old right now. I’m scared of junior highers right now. They make me nervous. They just know so much. I mean, with the information age, you know, they can log onto a computer and learn anything about anything. They can play music like I was never even allowed to hear. They have access to everything and yet they seem like, because of that, they are smarter, they are more advanced, they mature faster. I don’t know. I think it would be really hard to be a parent right now. There’s so many ads for how to limit cable use, like how you can have a lockbox on your cable or your Internet or whatever. You’d have to do that. Commercials are getting shorter and more intense and it’s so much more manipulative.
The women in this movie are sort of sabotaging each other. Have you ever had something done to you and then done something back? Or have you had a competitive relationship with someone like that?
Well, I kind of got into this whole crazy business because of a competitive relationship with this girl in high school. I did do some theatre in high school but by no means did I want to be an actress or anything. This girl that I sort of competed with, and didn’t like, she was telling me about this acting school that she was going to audition for. They only accepted 10% of the people who auditioned. It was an extremely hard program and probably it was a little too advanced for me. I was like, “Really? What’s the name of this school that you’re talking about?” I auditioned for it and I got in (smiling).
Did she?
She did. I said to my mother, “I think I might just go to this school. It’s in Chicago. It’s close but not too close, it’s in a big city. But if this girl goes to this school, I can’t do another four years with this girl.” She ended up not going. She went somewhere else, and now I’m an actress. It’s the weirdest thing.
PAGE 2: Judy Greer on Working with Jennifer Garner, "The Village," and "Cursed"
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Interview with Jennifer Garner
Interview with Mark Ruffalo
Andy Serkis Interview
"13 Going on 30" Photo Gallery
"13 Going on 30" Trailer, Credits, and Movie News
