Jennifer Garner is five minutes early for our Zoom.
I had never played a role as close to my own personality as Jenna.
Are you sure you wanna eat that?
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
Greer is only half-kidding.
Despite their onscreen rivalry, however, the two became fast friends.
It was lots of running down hallways and sneaking onto elevators.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
Winick and Ruffalo on set in 2003.
Jennifer Garner:You know, Ive never watched any of those special features on the DVD.
I keep meaning to but I havent watched the full movie since it came out.
Garner and Greer at the Los Angeles premiere of13 Going on 30in 2004.
JG, I need to sit with you so we can lean back and laugh our heads off together.
Was it an immediate yes?
There also wasnt a director on board when I read the script.
Winick and Ruffalo on set in 2003.
Judy, what do you remember from your audition for the film?
Gary was giggling and doing this little shoulder thing he did when something really cracked him up.
I had also heard only the most incredible things about Jeneveryone was obsessed with her and still is.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
I was just really excited at the prospect of getting Lucywhich I did!
Garner:Oh for sure.
It was a really big deal for all of us.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
Greer:It felt like all of us were leveling up together.
What do you two remember from your first meeting?
Would you say there was instant friend chemistry?
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
Greer:I would say it was pretty instant.
Garner:Its always been easy with us.
The first time we met was during rehearsals for theThriller dance.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
Garner:His face was pretty grim.
Which is funny because, JG, wasnt that one of the best rehearsal processes youve ever had?
Greer:Its one of the only ones Ive ever had, but yes.
Garner and Serkis in13 Going on 30.
Garner:I would shootAliasall week then go to rehearsals for13 Going on 30on weekends.
Greer:Gary was tireless about making the script as good as it could possibly be.
It was so unusualand still isto have rehearsal time before a shoot.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
Most people meet for the first time on set, right before they say action.
One of the things you get out of a rehearsal process is writing to the actors strengths.
Thats one reason this film feels so intimate.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
We would just toss things around.
Do you enjoy working in that mode?
Greer:A lot.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
Its really, really fun.
I think people on set are slightly more nervous around you than when youre playing a happy dumb-dumb.
People on the crew would walk up to me after a take and go, Youre such a bitch!
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
I totally got into this headspace of,Ugh, everybodylovesJen and wants to be her.
Garner:Oh, we can complain.
Weve gotten much better at complaining!
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
Jen, what was your prep like in terms of channeling your inner 13-year-old?
They had a little clutch of girlfriends, so I had a sleepover with them.
Im still close to those girls and so proud of them because now theyre all grown-ups.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
Theyre all 30 or 31
Greer:Shut your goddamn mouth right now.
Greer:Its weird how we havent gotten any older, though.
Garner:I know, its so weird how Imalso33.
Sprung-Keyser (left) and Garner in13 Going on 30.
Just a bunch of millennials, chatting about13 Going on 30.
Garner:Yeah, with my reading glasses and my cup of tea.
Greer:Hold on, where are mine?
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
[Puts on reading glasses.]
Thank God, now I can actually see both of you!
Garner:Did you know JG literally has a menopause supplement company?
Ariana Grande channeling her inner Jenna Rink on a 2021 episode ofThe Voice, wearing the iconic minidress from Versace’s spring 2003 collection.
Greer:Um excuse me, itsperimenopause.
Garner:My apologies, perimenopause!
But that sleepover just reminded me of how much freedom you have in your body at that age.
Garner asked Greer to give a speech when she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
I just watched them and saw how much their eyes were always listening.
They really wanted to lean in and understand and hear, which feels very Jenna.
Judy, were you more of a Jenna or Lucy in high school?
Greer:I would love to have been as cool as Jenna.
Its like, yeah, maybe now, but she doesnt look anything like me when I was 13.
I was so foul and gross-looking.
Garner:JG and I were both on the struggle bus when we were 13.
Greer:Oh, I had the front seatI wasnt even in the back.
Do either of you recall any of those moments that ended up in the film?
Greer:No, I wish I did.
We havent even talked about how funny Andy Serkis was.
Garner and Serkis in13 Going on 30.
Garner:I dont know, JG.
You really do bring an extra special sauce.
Youre just trying to hit your mark and get out of the way so you dont hold everybody up.
But on13 Going on 30we just had a lot of freedom to play.
How would you characterize Gary as a director, and the atmosphere that he cultivated on set?
Garner:He was our biggest fan.
I always feel comforted by directors who respect their crews and treat people well.
He came at filmmaking from the perspective of,were all in this together.
How was the experience shooting on location around the city?
I was like, what the actual fuck is happening?
What is my life?
Garner:I had been shooting an episode ofLaw and Orderin NYC what felt like the day before.
I couldnt believe it was happening, I was like,This issofucking New York.
Garner:We also shot in the coolest places.
Garner:For each episode ofAlias, we shot five out of eight days on location.
Ive killed bad guys pretty much all over the city of Los Angeles.
Garner:Ive worked with Susie eight or nine times since, if that tells you anything.
She came into that first meeting with an entire arc for Jenna: color, theme, shape.
Greer:Shes truly a genius.
All of our outfits are so chic.
It was overwhelming how many costume changes we had to do because our characters worked at a fashion magazine.
I mean, that butterfly necklace with that Versace minidress?
Garner:Dude, why did I not keep a single thing from that movie?
Garner:I was such a goody two-shoes that it didnt even occur to me to ask for anything.
JG kept a mug that saysPoiseon it, and then she made me one for my 50th birthday.
Now its my favorite mug that no one else is allowed to use.
Greer:We were having tea at my house and you said, What the fuck is that mug?
I was like, Well, obviously I stole it from the set.
Didnt you take one?
Im a very practical Midwesterner.
Garner:Panties and bras, we love to take panties and bras.
Garner:Gary gave me a Marc Jacobs bag when we wrapped that I still have.
That Versace minidress gets all the attention, but I think Judys lacy green dress deserves its flowers.
Greer:It was a top and bottom!
Garner:And you had arack, too.
I remember being in total awe of your body.
I mean, what I would give now.
Greer:Lest we forget thatsceneinAliaswhere youre coming out of the pool?
Garner:But JG, all I saw at the time were flaws.
Now I look back and think about how I shouldve just been naked all the time!
Greer:Im always saying, Why didnt I dress sluttier when I was that age?
Garner:JG, why didnt we just enjoy what we had?
Now I am much kinder to myself because I realize it doesnt do any good to pick yourself apart.
Garner:Thats the spirit!
Do each of you have a personal favorite outfit from the movie?
That was a choice because we felt like my character no longer needed to hide behind her clothes.
Lucy always had this undercurrent of competition with Jenna, and her fashion reflects that.
But Lucy finally won, so in this final moment she sheds all of that.
I really loved that dresswhich I didnotsteal.
The long scarf is a chic touch.
Greer:There was something about cleaning out my office and feeling that scraft and my hair swish around.
It all felt very,Fuck you!
The pink slip dress that you put a coat over at the beginning of the film is obviously iconic.
Garner:[Laughs.]
That one is certainly memorable.
It made me feel like a kid who rifled through a closet and thought,This would be cool!
Does any scene stand out as particularly memorable to shoot?
Garner:The slumber party scene was so much fun.
At the last minute I was like, Wait, I know a 13-year-old girl.
Can she be in the scene?
Shes the one who says something like Guys dont wanna jump your bones when youre a metal-mouth!
She got her law degree at NYU and now shes a big producer living in New York.
I was at her wedding not too long ago, so thats a special memory for me.
Whenever I catch part of that scene, Im like,Thats right, Maddy was in the movie!
Sprung-Keyser (left) and Garner in13 Going on 30.
Stop being a spy.
Greer:Yeah, and in many demographicseven men.
What did you think when you saw all of the13 Going on 30references in Ariana Grandesthank u, nextvideo?
Garner:I was so touched.
And when I met her she was like, You dont understand, this movie is my everything.
Bless her, shes such a sweetheart.
Greer:Drag shows are always a good indication.
But I think something worth pointing out is the big difference in how movies were released.
Now, everything is streaming and condensed into one magical day.
But there was an entire generation of young people who grew up watching13 Going on 30over and over.
I really think its the kids of our contemporaries who have carried on the love for this movie.
Thereve been multiple times when Im out trick-or-treating with my kids and see someonedressed up as Jennain that minidress.
You start to laugh and relate to the things your mom did when she watched it the first time.
Its hard to make a movie like that!
you’re free to see how kids would relate to a grown-up version of that dynamic.
Garner:How about the fabulous Kathy Baker as my mother?
I remember improvising that line, I wish Id come home last Christmas.
As funny and silly as the movie can be, it really does pull at the heartstrings.
I do think that innocence is part of the secret sauce.
at the end of every movie.
Garner:I dont know anyone who works harder or is more in-demand than JG.
But were very quick to forgive each other if we dont speak for a while.
Garner asked Greer to give a speech when she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
When Judys back in LA, you two can have a sleepover and rewatch13 Going on 30.
Greer:We totally will.
Im back from Finland soon.
Plus, I heard from a little birdie that your next job is in LA.
The furthest I travel for work these days is Pasadena.
Greer:Im so jealous.
I just wanna come home and have a glass of wine with you.
Garner:Well make it happen, we always do.
Love you, JG.
Greer:Love you, babe.
