Judy Greer shares her favorite things about fellow ‘Mad Love’ cast members
Interview by Michael Aaron Gallagher of StayFamous.Net
Judy Greer, Tyler Labine, Jason Biggs, and Sarah Chalke star in the CBS comedy “Mad Love.”
It doesn’t take long to see why actress Judy Greer has become a fan favorite in Hollywood. As if her roles in the popular romantic comedies “The Wedding Planner” (2001), “13 Going on 30” (2004), and “27 Dresses” (2008) weren’t enough to sway audiences, Greer also enjoyed a critically acclaimed run on the Fox series “Arrested Development.”
Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Greer once trained in ballet, before turning her attention to theater. Now at age 35, she has a successful career in both television and film. In 2005, she was nominated for a Teen Choice Award for her role in “13 Going on 30” (starring Jennifer Garner).
Her on-screen versatility and ability to be both snarky and likeable as Connie Grabowski (Kate’s roommate who works as a nanny) is the source of many comedic moments on her new CBS sitcom “Mad Love,” which premiered in February 2011. The show, which also stars Jason Biggs (“American Pie”) as Ben, Sarah Chalke (“Scrubs”) as Kate, and Tyler Labine (“Reaper”) as Larry, centers around their lives as New Yorkers – two of whom are involved in a relationship, while the other two seem destined to bicker their way into falling in love.
Fans can also catch Greer as the voice behind Cheryl in the animated series “Archer,” currently in its second season on FX.
“Cheryl” as voiced by Judy Greer.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Judy about her fellow castmates and her new character.
Michael Aaron Gallagher: “Describe your favorite thing about each of your fellow castmates, Jason, Tyler and both Sarahs. And that could be a favorite moment you had on set together or something about them that you really like.”
Judy Greer: “Oh, that’s a nice question… Tyler is very sensitive and that’s my favorite thing about him right now because I think he plays characters that aren’t, so I like that his personality is really emotional and sensitive and I love that about him.
I think my favorite thing about Jason is his sense of humor. He’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever met and he has a really dark sense of humor which I appreciate.
Both Sarahs are super generous. Sarah Chalke is like boundless energy and she’s so compassionate and Sarah Wright is super, she’s probably one of the nicest people I’ve ever met and she’s so generous with her time… she brought over this huge box of stuff for me when I was home sick one day which was so sweet and unexpected…”
Michael Aaron Gallagher: “Tell me a little bit about your involvement in shaping your character. What are some of the moments behind the scenes when you were able to contribute to your lines or something taking place in a scene and is your level of participation different between ‘Archer’ and ‘Mad Love?'”
Judy Greer: “Definitely, it’s really different to do a voice on an animated show because they really just work around my schedule and when I can get in there if I get finished with work at ‘Mad Love’ early, I can get over to the recording studio and record my role. It’s like, a half-hour of time to do it with the guys on the phone in Atlanta and it’s just me in a recording studio all by myself acting crazy and saying dirty things.
And then for ‘Mad Love,’ the participation level is like a thousand times more… shooting three days a week and being in rehearsals the other two days but it’s awesome… The sort of participation that we all have now and forming our characters and our lines and our jokes and everything – it’s a lot more – I mean, I would say that I add a lot of stuff, not a lot, but I add enough stuff to my character on ‘Archer’ because they’re really cool about me just like ad-libbing stuff and everything. And with ‘Mad Love’ I feel like in the beginning we were really like characters on a page, but after going through 13 episodes, (we) really started after the first few episodes, to become closer to our characters. And as the writers hung out with us more on set and got to know us better and watched us in our stupid little habits and idiosyncrasies they started to write more for our own personalities, and less for these like made-up character people… that’s been really fun to watch the sort of evolution of these people like as they turn more into us and less into characters. I feel like we’ve added a lot to that just in our rapport as a cast and as friends and our ideas that we’ve brought to the writers and Matt Tarses the creator.”
Michael Aaron Gallagher: “When you meet someone new, how do you describe the show to them?”
Judy Greer: “Well, I usually don’t. I just tell people to watch my show, watch my show, watch my show. It’s funny, it’s awesome…. I usually say it’s about two couples finding love in New York City but in two very different ways.”
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“Judy Greer shares her favorite things about fellow ‘Mad Love’ cast members”
Copyright © 2011 by Michael Aaron Gallagher – All rights reserved.
Photograph courtesy of Sony Pictures Television
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