Before she became a co-star to Hugh Jackman in Bad Education, Geraldine Viswanathan gave us some other memorable performances too. The talented actress who is Indian from her father's side played a teenage daughter in sex-positive comedy Blockers. Viswanathan was inspired to do comedy after watching FRIENDS at the age of eight. A few of her notable works over the years have been The Package, Hala, and a comedy series Miracle Workers. She has also voiced a Bojack Horseman character - the memorable Tawnie. Her latest conquest was bagging a role in Bad Education, in which Viswanathan plays a high schooler. Her character, Rachel Bhargava, is a student journalist in Roslyn, Long Island.
Started acting in grade five
Raised by her mother, Anja, the 24-year-old Australian began her acting stint in kindergarten. “I remember being in this play when I was in grade five. I never got any leading roles, but I did get one little comedic bit part and I remember getting a laugh and feeling pretty cool about it,” she revealed in wwd.com. “My very, very first thing that I self submitted to on Actor’s Access was this unpaid film called ‘All Out Dysfunktion!’ and I played ‘young hottie number two.’ I think I probably needed a visa, and I needed an IMDb credit. So yeah, I just had to go be that young hottie number two — not even number one,” she added.
Viswanathan was recently seen in the film Hala, a coming-of-age drama about a Muslim teenager. She said it was her most challenging role, The Last Magazine reported.
She is not a Harry Potter fan
Even though she acted in a film starring Daniel Radcliffe, Miracle Workers, she told him that she only watched the first Harry Potter movie when she was eight and did not even finish because she was scared. She read the books though, and never felt the enthusiasm about the Harry Potter series.
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On Bad Education
Portraying Rachel Bhargava, a student reporter at the Roslyn high school who helps in the investigation of an $11.2 million dollar larceny scandal, the actress said, “She gets to be the hero of the story, the whistleblower. I thought that was pretty cool, to see this high schooler take down the powers that be and ask those questions that no one’s really been bothered to ask yet. She was sort of an outcast in the community and she had her own scandal and her family life, but she was kind of coming from a place of having nothing to lose. And I felt that was really interesting.”
Talking to Variety about meeting Hugh Jackman for the first time, Geraldine Viswanathan said, "I was very star-struck, but then he immediately put me at ease. He’s just the friendliest and loveliest. We’re both from Australia, so it was kind of like an instant ‘Hey!’"
Talking about signing in alongside huge stars like Jackman and Allison Janney, Viswanathan claimed,
“Just from watching them I felt like I learned a lot. Just from observing them and how they do it, I think you just naturally pick up on things,” she was quoted saying. “When we wrapped, Hugh gave me a wrapped gift and a card and I was too nervous to open the card in front of him because I thought I would melt down crying. So I opened the present as he was like, ‘You know, you should always open the card.’ I was like, ‘Actually that’s good advice for being a good human.’ So I’ve taken that with me — and he also taught me how to play backgammon, but I’ve immediately forgotten how it works,” she added.
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On being famous
“I don't feel famous at all,” the actress said in an interview. "I don't think I've really felt like there's been a huge change in my life in that way. Now I have more Instagram followers than I used to and I'm very used to just posting dumb stuff and now I have to be a bit like, ‘Hmm. Not only my friends will see this. Do I really want to put this picture up?’” she claimed.
How Viswanathan is spending time in lockdown?
“I feel like just from the get-go, 2020 was unsettling and weird,” Viswanathan says, wwd.com reported. “Even my New Year’s was weird. I was in Australia over Christmas and the bush fires were going on, and that was also really bizarre,” she added.
Social distancing proving to be peaceful for Viswanathan as beside promoting her latest true-story-based film Bad Education, she’s also binging on movies, playing Animal Crossing, learning poker with her roommates and doing normal kitchen stuff.
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Feature Image Credit: Geraldine Viswanathan / Instagram
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