Greer shines bright in new drama

You know her face but not her name. You've seen her in a dozen things but can't put your finger on it. So it's about time we put a name to the face of the perennial co-star and busy character actor Judy Greer, whose blonde locks and pixie features have appeared in more than 90 film, TV and stage roles.

You might have seen her on Arrested Development, Two and a Half Men, Mad Love and the acclaimed but little seen new series, Married. She's played the perennial best friend in 27 Dresses and 13 Going on 30 and the adulterer's wife in the Oscar-winning film The Descendants.

The luminous 39-year-old blonde with the cutely crinkled nose even made a joke of always playing the co-star and never the star in her amusingly titled memoir, I Don't Know What You Know Me From: Confessions of a Co-Star, earlier this year.

All that may be about to change after Greer's acclaimed performance in Men, Women and Children, the sobering new ensemble drama from writer- director Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air). It follows a loosely collected network of families and how their connection to the internet disconnects them from real life.

Greer's controversial character is Donna, a stage mum who not only encourages her trampy daughter to post racy pictures on her website but also takes the photos herself.

She laughs when I suggest she won't be winning any mother-of- the-year awards.

"Yeah, I know, I should get a mug or a calendar!" giggles Greer, who has transformed herself from a gawky Detroit- born theatre-school graduate to one of the most prolific actresses working today. "But Donna probably already has those - oh gross!"

The awards-season contender - adapted by Reitman from Chad Kultgen's novel - includes Adam Sandler and Rosemarie DeWitt as an unhappily married couple who turn to adult websites for gratification. Jennifer Garner's over-protective mother keeps a militant check on her daughter's every text and email. Dean Norris (from Breaking Bad) is dealing with a son (Ansel Elgort) addicted to a gaming website.

Of all her many roles, Greer admits "this one is up there, man".

"If you were going to ask me about the five movies I've done that I'm really proud of, this would be up there," she beams, naming The Descendants, 13 Going on 30, The TV Set and Jeff, Who Lives at Home as her other four. "Some you do to work with certain people, others you do for money. This one really was for the love of the game, you know. It's really layered and complex and honest. I really connected with it and I'm really proud of it and I think it's an important film."

Yet she admits it was difficult to play a misguided mother who pimps out her sexy daughter, and harder still not to judge her.

"It was a tricky role and it could have gone a lot of different ways, and it was a hard role to wrap my mind around. I just tried to block out the bad parts about her and focus on her wanting to make her daughter's dreams come true.

"But I do think Donna's heart was in the right place. She genuinely did want the best for her daughter and thought she was controlling the message, but it all spiralled out of control.

"I also try with all my characters to find compassion for them even if I don't agree with what they do. So I'm hoping I gave her enough humanity that the audience didn't outright hate her."

With a teenage stepson and stepdaughter to her TV-producer husband, the button-cute Greer can relate to the film's message about the dangers of technology in undisciplined hands.

"I'm close with my stepkids and I want them to open up to me and be close, and the only way you can think of doing that is by trying to be their friend.

"But you have to be their parent. It's a fine line. But I see all these kind of stage mums all over Hollywood; the kind who want to be their child's friend rather than their parent."

While critics have chastised Men, Women and Children for playing like a paranoid drama about the negatives of the internet, Greer sees the positives.

"No one wants to watch a movie where it's all happy and perfect. There's no conflict. So it's a story about the dark side of it. But I feel like there are positives in the love story between the kids, which happens in person and is beautiful.

"And it's not just a movie about kids doing bad things. It's a story about children behaving badly and adults, who should know better, behaving even worse."

Yet one thing is assured; Greer's performance in the film has shot her to Hollywood's most-wanted list. So if you couldn't put a name to her face before, you soon will when she stars in the upcoming blockbusters Tomorrowland, Jurassic World and Ant-Man.

"I'll have to write a new book called Now You Know What You Know Me From: More Confessions from a Co-Star," she laughs. "To be continued . . ."

'If you were going to ask me about five movies . . . I'm really proud of, this would be up there.'