WORLD’S BEST CO-STAR
She has acted with practically everyone in Hollywood – and now her career is hotter than ever
Judy Greer’s Hollywood career is hotter than ever
Judy Greer has worked with plenty of A-listers, but right now the diva she really wants to dish about is Mary Richards. No, not the lead character in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, but the tiny terrier Greer adopted two years ago. “It hurts me how much I love her,” she says. “I wanted to be that actress who travels everywhere with her little dog, but it turns out Mary is very stressed, and I’m not sure I could leave her in a hotel room alone.”
Mary might not be your typical lapdog, but Greer isn’t a typical actress. The Detroit native, 43, has made a name for herself as the consummate co-star, playing the sensible, funny, occasionally snarky sidekick to the likes of Jennifer Lopez, George Clooney and Jennifer Aniston in more than 100 films and TV shows over the past 20 years. And the actress is always in demand.
The daughter of a hospital administrator mum and engineer dad, she graduated from The Theatre School at Chicago’s Depaul University, then moved to Los Angeles and got work immediately. “I just kept getting work. And I keep getting work. I’m unqualified to do anything else,” jokes Greer, who wrote a memoir in 2014 called I Don’t Know What You Know Me From: My Life as a Co-star.
She has at least 10 credits in 2018 alone, starting with the movie Ant-man and the Wasp, Netflix’s Arrested Development and her longtime voice work on the FX animated show Archer. Now she stars with Jim Carrey on the new Showtime series Kidding, plays Jamie Lee Curtis’s daughter in next month’s Halloween sequel and makes her directorial debut with the indie comedy A Happening of Monumental Proportions. To cast it, she called a few of her famous friends, including Keanu Reeves, Katie Holmes and Jennifer Garner, whose best friend she played in Suddenly 30 in 2004. “She was just so wonderful and happy all the time,” recalls Greer of working with Garner. “I’m pretty happy, but when No. 1 on the call sheet is that happy, you cannot complain.”
Greer also has a lot to celebrate in her personal life. Her husband, producer Dean E. Johnsen, 50, is finally moving in with her— after nearly seven years of marriage. “Our married life is a little weird,” she admits. “He had his house and I had mine. We spent our nights together back and forth.”
Now that her stepchildren are 18 and 23, the duo will reside solely in her newly renovated home. “I married the right guy for
“I just kept getting work. And I keep getting work”
me,” she says. She thanks her traditional Midwestern roots for keeping her grounded despite her booming career. “I’d say I’m pretty good at enjoying the bulls--t, but still seeing that it is bulls--t,” says Greer. “It’s good to understand that what we do can come and go quickly. I’m grateful that each year just keeps getting better.”