Judy Greer says she knew almost immediately on the set of 13 Going on 30 that Jennifer Garner was something rare: a star who made everyone else want to be better. Meeting Garner at an early rehearsal, Greer said she felt she had to be on really good behavior because Garner was, in her words, a really good person.
“Can you imagine? She’s like the most loved person in the world,” Greer said, adding that Garner was “so lovely and so excited about the role” and took the work “so seriously.” Greer said she, Garner and Mark Ruffalo all felt the film was “really something special,” a judgment that has only hardened with time as 13 Going on 30 has kept its place in pop culture more than two decades later.
Greer made the comments while looking back on the movie as part of PEOPLE’s Costar Album. Her memories turned as much on the atmosphere behind the camera as on the finished film. She credited late director Gary Winick with creating a set that felt full of love, support and happiness, saying he was “making this so fun, so filled with love.”
The warmth, she said, was not just a one-time feeling tied to a single production. Greer said she and Garner have stayed close friends, and that the broader cast still makes time for one another. “We had a reunion dinner like a month ago at Donna Roth’s house. We do this all the time,” she said. “Jen and I have stayed close friends, but like all of us have stayed in touch and we all root for each other.”
That lasting bond is the real reason 13 Going on 30 still gets talked about the way it does. The movie gave audiences a light, watchable comedy. It also gave the people inside it a circle that, by Greer’s account, never really broke apart.
If you want more recent Garner family updates, there have also been public outings tied to her home life, including a Santa Monica appearance noted in Jennifer Garner 54th Birthday Photos Show Santa Monica Outing With Fin and a Los Angeles errand run covered in Fin Affleck: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner take Samuel on Los Angeles errand run.
Two decades on, Greer’s recollection answers the question the film’s fans still ask: the chemistry on screen was real because the feeling off screen was, too.
