Australian star-on-the-riseGERALDINE
VISWANATHANhas equal parts acting talent
and comedic wit in spades — and Hollywoodhas noticed. She talks toELLEMCCLURE
about stand-up, Steve Buscemi and gettingIndian food with Mindy Kaling
RING a family holiday when Geraldine
iswanathan was 15 years old, she corralled
er parents and younger sister — who’d
one the long-haul flight (13-plus hours)
rom suburban Newcastle to Los Angeles
into standing among the masses who’d
miere ofBridesmaids. Her goal? The auto-
graphs of her idols: Kristen Wiig and Rose Byrne. Last year,
Blockers, the movie in which Viswanathan played a breakout
role (and her first-ever Hollywood film) had its premiere at the
very same theatre she and her family had once lingered outside.
While landing on the other side of that velvet rope may
make for a sweet coincidence, the now 23-year-old’s standing
in Hollywood is due in no part to blind luck. “It was defi-
nitely my ever-since-forever,” she tells me with a self-assured-
ness that extends to her personal style; she’s shed the (Chloé
and Valentino) pants from our photoshoot in favour of the
high-waisted checked ones she arrived in.
Viswanathan took her first proper acting class during that
LA holiday, leading to the ‘Aha’ moment many young actors
speak of: that this could be a career. “I was like,Oh, this is
what I want to do, so when I finished high school I went back
to LA and did more classes and just started doing everything
I could to work towards it,” she recalls. It clearly paid off. For
an actor to land their first US film in a lead role rather than
a bit-part is almost unheard of. “It was crazy. I wasn’t
expecting it,” she says, “but the right thing came along and it
just kind of fell together. It was so perfect.”
InBlockers, Viswanathan emerged as an unexpected comedic
talent. Her character, Kayla, is a woke, weed-smoking teenager
determined to lose her virginity as part of a pact with her girl-
friends. Viswanathan’s ability to garner laughs was especially
impressive considering the film also starred bona fide funny
person Leslie Mann. That Viswanathan’s teen character was so
unapologetic about her pursuits and refused to be slut-shamed
for being a young woman with sexual desires spoke volumes
of the kinds of roles she, and many young actors like her,
look set to take on in a post-Time’s Up world. “It was refreshing
to see this story told from the young female perspective,” she
says. “It’s the default in a comedy talking about virginity for
it to be [about] boys’ experiences — that’s all we’ve really seen.
I was so pleased in terms of whatBlockerswas saying.” She
makes it clear she didn’t go all the way to Hollywood toCamilla and Marc dress, $850;
Mara & Mine shoes, $375.
CULTURE