BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Judy Greer Supports As Sister-In-Law In Coming Out Drama ‘Uncle Frank’

Following
This article is more than 3 years old.

After eight months of being locked down at home due to the worldwide health pandemic, actress Judy Greer is ready to get back to work. Best known for her delightfully memorable performances in major studio films including Ant-Man And The Wasp, War For The Planet Of The Apes and the rebooted Halloween, in which she played Jamie Lee Curtis’ estranged daughter Karen, to countless TV series, Greer has been a ubiquitous presence in Hollywood popular fare. But 2020 has put the brakes on her career as it has with so many other performers.

“I’ve never in my whole career been home this much,” says the veteran actress by phone. “I’ve learned to cook and do all the same things that everyone else is doing. But I’m definitely ready to go back to work. I think my husband’s ready for me to go back to work because I’ve been home for so long.”

Actually, Greer hasn’t been completely idle. She continues to voice the character of Cheryl/Charlotte on FXX’s animated adult comedy series Archer, now in its twelfth season. She also voices the character of Beep on Netflix’s NFLX children’s animated series Ask The StoryBots and the title character on PBS’ kid-friendly series Let’s Go Luna! But new live-action projects have ground to a halt for now.

Coming up on Amazon Prime Video, she plays a supporting character in Oscar winner Alan Ball’s heartwarming coming-out drama Uncle Frank, which he wrote and directed. The film stars Paul Bettany (Vision, in the Avengers movies, A Beautiful Mind) as the title character, an outsider in his conservative South Carolina family in the early 1970s. Having escaped to New York as an adult, Frank Bledsoe is a successful professor who has lived in an apartment with his Arab partner Walid, who goes by the more Americanized Wally, for more than a decade. While Frank and Wally enjoy regular parties with their gay friends, Frank hasn’t told anyone in his family save his sister about his long-term relationship with Wally. When his college-age niece, Beth, shows up unexpectedly at his apartment, Frank reluctantly reveals his situation to her and his complicated relationship with his parents, particularly his homophobic father.

Called back to South Carolina for his father’s funeral, Frank insists that Wally not join him and Beth on their road trip home, but Wally follows anyway and encourages Frank to reveal his true self to his family. But he fears they will reject him as his father did, and he is haunted by a terrible loss from his childhood.

As Kitty, Greer is Frank’s upbeat sister-in-law, who is protective of her daughter (Beth)—she won’t allow her to fly, thus the road trip—yet also, once informed, is sympathetic to Frank’s plight. She doesn’t always say the appropriate things to Frank, but she is accepting nonetheless.

Greer joins a remarkable supporting cast that includes Sophia Lillis as Beth, Peter Macdissi as Wally, Steve Zahn as Mike (Kitty’s good-old-boy husband), Lois Smith as bigoted Aunt Butch, Stephen Root as Frank’s emotionally abusive father Daddy Mac and Margo Martindale as Mammaw, the matriarch of the Bledsoe family.

Uncle Frank is a very personal work for Alan Ball, best known for penning American Beauty, for which he won an Oscar, and for writing and often directing the award-winning HBO series Six Feet Under and True Blood. The gay Georgia native was inspired to write Uncle Frank based on personal tragedies in his family: the death of his sister in an auto accident in which he was a young passenger and a gay relative who lost a friend in a mysterious drowning accident, and then accompanied the young man’s body home to another state by train.

Greer says that during this months-long lockdown, she’s managed to stay connected with people via Zoom, participating in online clubs like a knitting group, to which there are the occasional surprises.

“One of our members stood up the other day and was fully pregnant. None of us knew it because we usually only see her face,” she says with a laugh.

Uncle Frank premieres on Amazon Prime Video Wednesday Nov. 25.

Angela Dawson: What made you decide to sign on to Uncle Frank?

Judy Greer: The idea of working with Alan (Ball, the writer/director), of course. But really, I read the script first and I loved the story. I thought it was beautifully written. It’s also that I feel strongly about stories like this that need to be told. People tend to think we’ve come farther than we have. I always want to be part of these stories of acceptance and courage, where that’s concerned. So, that was important to me. Then, I went to lunch with Alan and he told me that this is a very personal story for him, and so I cried a lot at lunch, and I wanted to do it even more.

Then, I was even more honored because I wanted so badly to make the story come to life. The fact that he chose me for any role at all was so humbling and such a huge compliment. That’s how it began. And then we had to wait for (financing) so we got a little money and made it, and it looks like we had a lot of money to make it, which is a real testament to our awesome crew.

If you weren’t going to say yes to this because of Alan Ball, you’d have to be an idiot not to say yes to all the amazing people in the cast. It was ridiculous to sit on set staring at all those faces. We had so much fun. The story was so tender, and filled with grief, pain and regret, and yet we just really had a good time. We found a lot in these large supporting roles.

Dawson: How long ago did you film this and where?

Greer: We made it a year ago around Memorial Day so about a year-an- a-half ago. We shot it in Wilmington, N.C., even though the story is set in South Carolina. I fell in love with Wilmington while I was there shooting. I loved that town and being there. The people there helped me a lot get into character too because everyone there is so warm, open, friendly and helpful. It was a pretty radical shoot, I thought.

Dawson: A lot of the cast comes together for several group scenes, such as the wake and the post-funeral gathering outdoors. How challenging was it doing those scenes with several of the cast members?

Greer: The bigger challenge in those group scenes is that we were having so much fun hanging out together, it was just settling down to actually do the scene. We were kind of like naughty kids in school who wouldn’t stop talking during class. It was like a real family. Some of that technical stuff you just kind of get used to and don’t think about it. I don’t think about it too much anymore. The biggest challenge was hearing them call “action,” because we were all laughing, talking and engaging with each other.

It was funny because Paul’s character is the outsider. But we’d be on set jumping around and hanging out with him, and then we’d have to start the scene where we weren’t supposed to be caring about or acknowledging him. We’re all pros, but there were definitely a couple of times when we’d have to turn our heads away because we were laughing too hard. 

Dawson: Are you aware Amazon Studios, which produced Uncle Frank, is teaming up with The Trevor Project, a non-profit that focuses on suicide prevention for the LGBTQ youth?

Greer: Yeah, they’re supporting a project to train 50 new volunteer counselors. They’re also teaming up with and donating meals, including Thanksgiving meals, to the Los Angeles LGBT Center Partnership. I was really impressed by that. The Trevor Project is an amazing organization. The suicide rate among teenagers, especially LGBTQ, is alarmingly high. You’d think that in late 2020 that wouldn’t be the case but it’s still a big issue. I’m really proud of Amazon Studios and proud to be doing a movie for them as they support these issues and causes.

Dawson: You’re usually working on multiple projects. What’s happening with you right now?

Greer: I was on (Showtime’s) Kidding which, unfortunately, got canceled this summer. How do you cancel a show with Jim Carrey, Frank Langella and Catherine Keener? I don’t understand, Anyhow, it was nominated for a Golden Globe and so was Jim, so that was nice.

I’m in the process of taking a break, a forced break. I don’t have a TV show to go back to so I’m looking for a television project, so I’m pitching ideas. I’m reading movie scripts to potentially direct and reading movies to act in when things kind of get going a little bit more. People are shooting right now but it’s mostly either giant budget movies that can afford a major COVID protocol or TV shows that already were in the process of being shot that have an infrastructure for COVID protocols. So, I’m just staying home, staying safe.

Dawson: Would you feel safe and comfortable if you did get called to do a show?

Greer: I think so. It would depend on the show and what kind of protocol they have put together. My husband (Dean E. Johnsen) is an executive producer on Real Time With Bill Maher, and I find their COVID protocol very impressive to keep the crew and guests safe. So, if it was a show with that kind of set-up, I’d feel very comfortable. Everything is specific; everything is different, though. I’d just have to talk to the producer. I’m definitely ready to go back to work. It’s been a weird but nice break but I really need to get back to work.

Dawson: Halloween Kills, the sequel to Halloween, was pushed back from this year to Halloween 2021, right?

Greer: Yes. We finished Halloween Kills. We haven’t started the next one (Halloween Ends). There were rumors that we were going to shoot both of them at the same time but we didn’t. It was supposed to open in October, but the studio decided to push it back. I agree that it deserves a theatrical release. Of course, we were disappointed (that it didn’t come out this year) but I’m also excited that it will get a theatrical release. There’s nothing like going to see a big movie premiere for a horror movie that people love.