Judy Greer might not be my best friend in real life, but I find myself rooting for her like one anyway because she’s so darn likable. With such films and shows as 13 Going on 30, Jurassic World and Archer under her belt, the actress is stepping behind the camera for her directorial debut with the comedy, A Happening of Monumental Proportions. The indie film, which just won the Audience Spotlight Award at this year’s Bentonville Film Festival, centers on a group of LA students who find themselves in a web of sex, lies and dead bodies.
Greer decided to pursue the project after a push from her manager to expand her horizons, plus a huge desire to be a part of the film-making process more often. “I just wanted to try to find a way to be on set more often,” she told The Mary Sue. “And since I haven’t been the star in a movie, I thought maybe I should just direct a movie and then I can be on set all of the time.”
That’s what we call taking charge of your own destiny. It’s true that while she has appeared in more great movies than I can count, she’s pretty much been delegated to the best friend (and reliable scene-stealer!) role. She deserves a chance to shine on her own and this movie will certainly help with that. It also helps that she chose something funny given our current political climate, which is anything but that.
“Times are shit, man. It is rough out there. I hope I made a comedy that can just make people forget,” she explained. “I am very moved, personally, by the trivialities of daily life and what connects us all. Sometimes people are jerks and maybe they’re a jerk because they just had a really bad thing happen to them. And maybe your purpose in their day is to get that out on you, a stranger, so that they don’t go home and take it out on someone else. I don’t know but I like small stories and I like the idea that we all are connected. At the end of the day, we all have a thing that we loved and we all want to be loved.” Excuse me, I need to go make a phone call to a loved one right now.
As far as her next move as a newly-minted director, Greer says she has her eyes on the rom-com genre which is currently experiencing a serious drought. “I don’t know why we can’t have a romantic comedy about two women? Like, what’s up with that? Or two men,” she said. “It’d be interesting to take a script that we all know and love and just re-shoot it and recast it as, let’s say, two women as the leads.”
I’m trying to imagine Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason with Bridget falling for Mark Darcy’s co-worker Rebecca instead but I think a completely original script works best. Still, it’s clear that we could use more rom-coms with LGBTQIA leads. The two that come immediately to mind (In & Out with Kevin Kline and Jenny’s Wedding starring Katherine Heigl) don’t even fit the category. Seriously, let’s fix this STAT!
Another thing that could use some serious fixing up is the amount of women represented behind the camera in Hollywood. As the Bentonville festival proves, there’s an abundance of talented women filmmakers out there. The big question is how do we get that reflected in the industry?
“I think it’s about the people who have a voice at this time speaking out,” she said before citing examples like Jennifer Lawrence demanding equal pay to her male co-stars, and Charlize Theron, who’s been actively pushing for greater representation of women. However, they can only do some much. True change must come from the individuals telling the stories and making the big decisions. “We need more female executives and we need more female writers,” she added. Agreed.
(image: Vivien Killilea/Getty Images)
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