From zany lesbian comedies to entering the Marvel Universe, Viswanathan’s range is ever expanding, and talks why she’ll always be addicted to getting a laugh.
When Geraldine Viswanathan joins me from her sofa for a chat on Zoom, she is sitting on a blanket gifted to her by the filmmaker Ethan Coen and writer and editor Tricia Cooke. Husband-and-wife film royalty, they gave it to her when Viswanathan starred in their 2024 lesbian screwball road movie, Drive-Away Dolls, with Margaret Qualley. “They know that I’m a cozy girl who wants to live in a blanket,” Viswanathan says.
It quickly becomes clear that this affable, rising-star comedy actor inspires the nurturing side of quite a few of her coworkers. Her latest film is Thunderbolts*, the new installment from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which pairs her with Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Now the comedy legend sends Viswanathan cute dog videos (“Julia really thinks I need a dog”) and dill pickles, because Louis-Dreyfus knows dill is her favorite flavor.
When Viswanathan worked on The Beanie Bubble—the 2023 film about the 1990s craze for Beanie Baby soft toys—she says her costar Sarah Snook really took her under her wing, helping her to find her feet in the nomadic world of acting. “Especially when you start out, you don’t really know where you’re going to be. You’re in Atlanta for six months, you’re in Vancouver for six months… People don’t talk about that—it’s a logistical nightmare,” she says. “But I’m well equipped for this life, because I’m a Gemini—we’re very adaptable.”
“When you start out, you don’t really know where you’re going to be. You’re in Atlanta for six months, you’re in Vancouver for six months… People don’t talk about that— it’s a logistical nightmare.”
It’s nice to get the sense that the warmth and physicality that 30-year-old Viswanathan brings to every screen role is who she actually is, not just a part she plays. That the actors who work with her feel that too. From her breakthrough role as the extrovert party girl Kayla in 2018’s Blockers to this year’s wedding rom-com You’re Cordially Invited, in which she plays Will Ferrell’s daughter, it’s the vulnerability and relatability that keep you focused on Viswanathan on screen as much as the hilarious dance routines and pratfalls.
Sure, she’s won a Hollywood Critics Association award and was picked as one of Toronto International Film Festival’s rising stars in 2019, but earlier this year she was also shortlisted for best female orgasm on screen at the annual awards held by the Girls on Film podcast—a prize given for “authentic, realistic, and responsible depiction of women’s pleasure.” Recognition that feels apt for this talented, hilarious but sympathetic actress.
Viswanathan grew up in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, with a dad who works in nuclear medicine, a mother who’s an artist, and her younger sister, who now has her own fashion label. Viswanathan’s love of performing started early: “I was a very chatty kid, excited to speak and be in the world. I was always telling stories and my parents were, like, ‘What do we do with this child?’”
The answer was the local school for performing arts, which she attended from the age of six. After some experimentation and disappointments (“I was really bad at dance”), Viswanathan found her true love: “There’d be school shows and I’d never get the lead, but eventually they gave me a comedic line in a play and I really remember that feeling of telling a joke and getting a laugh. I became addicted to that—I just want to make people laugh as much as I can.”
She learned her craft doing stand-up on the Sydney open-mic circuit. She was working with the much-loved Australian female sketch group Freudian Nip when she was cast in her breakthrough film role in Blockers. That comedy prom-night hit was created by Kay Cannon (the writer/director/producer who created the Pitch Perfect film series and worked on the television shows New Girl and 30 Rock).
Viswanathan thinks her apprenticeship on the improv circuit was invaluable: “I felt alive doing it. I was never really satisfied with everyday interaction, and I wanted to live in a more extreme way,
I guess,” she says. “I enjoy the pressure cooker of it. I need that fire under my ass. When you do well, it feels amazing—it’s a drug that can never be replicated. But if you bomb, then it’s good to have that experience and know that you’ll keep living and that you’ll be okay. It actually feels a bit spiritual—you’re opening yourself up to the comedy gods and saying, ‘Please give me something.’”
“Her timing is impeccable. She’s naturally funny and always brings a truth and honesty to her portrayals, making all of her comedic characters believable.”
Steve Buscemi
And the comedy gods seem to really like Viswanathan. Steve Buscemi actually played God to Viswanathan’s angel in all four seasons of the TV show Miracle Workers, in which her character tries to stop the divine being’s plan to destroy humankind. Buscemi is a particular fan: “Her timing is impeccable. She’s naturally funny and always brings a truth and honesty to her portrayals, making all of her comedic characters believable,” he says.
She got to combine the superhuman and comedy in last years Thunderbolts*, which follows the misadventures of a band of super powered misfits, including David Harbour as the Red Guardian and Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Black Widow’s sister. Though Viswanathan’s superhero alter ego was still under wraps when we spoke—with the educated guesses casting her as the sonically gifted Songbird—she can talk about the experience of working in the Marvel Universe.
“At my first Comic Con I couldn’t even speak, I was so overwhelmed,” she says. “It was bonkers—there were so many people and everybody’s losing their minds. It’s such fun to watch the veterans of the Universe play within that. There’s the Robert Downey Jr. moment, David Harbour, Florence Pugh—they’re icons and their characters are so beloved. It’s an impassioned fan base and I don’t know anywhere else like that.”
She was keen to work with Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier—“Oh my God, his Kendrick Lamar [short, 2022’s We Cry Together]—and Julia Louis-Dreyfus is impossible to say no to,” but Viswanathan is also aware that entering the Marvel Universe will take her career to another level. “Marvel is such a milestone in any career and has such a different reach,” she says. “People from my hometown are going to see this one—it’s going to be in theaters.”
“It’s surprising to me when I hear how rare [my experience] is. I feel I’ve just jumped right into working with first-time female directors. It’s what I get excited about, organically, to be part of that journey that women filmmakers are on. I’m drawn to female voices, even when I read books. I want to know what women are thinking.”
To date, her choices have skewed independent and first-time director. That’s given her a positive experience of an industry often overshadowed by #MeToo and known for its appalling record concerning diversity and gender imbalance.
“It’s surprising to me when I hear how rare [my experience] is. I feel I’ve just jumped right into working with first-time female directors.” In fact, she says she has worked with more female than male directors, “and I like it that way. It’s what I get excited about, organically, to be part of that journey that women filmmakers are on,” Viswanathan says. “I’m drawn to female voices, even when I read books. I want to know what women are thinking.”
And her developing industry savvy is opening her eyes to possibilities and potential. “As I get to understand more of the business in Hollywood and how difficult it is to get things made,” she says, “I do feel that if women are in a position to finance a movie, they should be thinking about working with female filmmakers and amplifying those voices.”
It’s something she’s considering on a personal level, as this year Viswanathan is taking her first steps down the career-hyphenate route herself, working as a producer and writer as well as forging on with her acting career. The film Oh, Hi! arrives last year after a great reception at Sundance (it’s written and directed by women, natch: Molly Gordon and Sophie Brooks), but she’s not able to talk yet about many of her upcoming projects, which are all in the delicate “in development” phase of existence.
She’s pleased that she won the rights to author Mayukh Sen’s Love, Queenie: Merle Oberon, Hollywood’s First South Asian Star. It’s the biography of the hard but fascinating life of the actress best known for playing Cathy to Laurence Olivier’s Heathcliff in the 1939 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights. Oberon made history in 1936 when she became the first Asian to be nominated for an Oscar for best actress. She spent most of her life trying to hide her Anglo-Indian origins as she rose from poverty to fame in British and Hollywood films.
“There’s a bunch of stuff cooking,” Viswanathan says gleefully. “I’m producing, which feels exciting and fun, and I would love to direct down the line. I mean, I’m indecisive but I’ve heard that directing is actually good if you’re indecisive. To me, moving into directing feels like the natural progression—so I can have more say in what I do and who I work with.”
The film industry had better watch. Geraldine Viswanathan is a force to be reckoned with.
All images/videos courtesy of the artist. Homepage image by Johnny Diaz Nicolaidis. This feature first appeared in the Women Of Today Issue.
