Empire Spotlight: Geraldine Viswanathan Is Thriving With Her Comedy Heroes

Geraldine Viswanathan remembers a conversation with Ethan Coen that made her realise life was getting pretty weird. It was early 2024, and they were promoting Drive-Away Dolls, in which Coen directed her — already something she found ridiculous. “He said, ‘Oh, Guillermo del Toro watched the movie and really liked your performance,’” she remembers, aghast. “The Australian in me wants to downplay everything and keep me humble and pretend none of this exists,” she laughs. “I’m really trying to step into a more American mentality.”

Viswanathan spent her early career doing stand-up and sketch comedy in Sydney, and travelled back and forth between Australia and America before her big Hollywood break came in 2018 with Blockers. Acting in the teen comedy about lifelong friends who make a pact to lose their virginity on prom night was a time she calls “the craziest year of my life. I went from working in a bowling alley to acting with John Cena.” (He played her dad.)

"The two foundational texts of my youth are Mean Girls and Step Brothers."

Since then, she’s flitted between roles in small, well-received dramas (Hala, Bad Education) and starry affairs (The Beanie Bubble and the aforementioned Drive-Away Dolls). Today, she’s reached a stage in her career where she’s going toe-to-toe with her comedy heroes.

In upcoming wedding caper You’re Cordially Invited, Viswanathan stars as bride-to-be Jenni, whose coddling father Jim, played by Will Ferrell, inadvertently scuppers her big day. She’d idolised the SNL alumnus since her days growing up in New South Wales. “The two foundational texts of my youth are Mean Girls and Step Brothers,” she enthuses. “At school we used so many Step Brothers quotes that it was basically a language in itself.” Meeting Ferrell for the first time was enough to entirely freak out her inner-teenage self. “I was screaming and wearing my ‘I LOVE WILL FERRELL’ T-shirt, so he got that I was a fan,” she says. She’s joking. We’re 95 per cent sure she’s joking.

Anxious as she was about performing with Ferrell, Viswanathan felt prepped thanks to her stand-up roots: “It gave me the ability to fail and embarrass myself, which is important, and something I had to do a lot of in this movie.”

The stakes shifted somewhat when it came to her next big-screen adventure, however, as this summer she’ll appear in Thunderbolts* as the assistant of Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ power-hungry CIA director, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. “The scale of that was ridiculous and terrifying in a new way,” explains Viswanathan. “It was like, ‘Oh, there are 500 extras and a helicopter in this scene, so I’d better not fuck up my line.’”

The helicopters she could sort of get used to, but it took her some time to get her head around sharing scenes with Louis-Dreyfus. “She is the actual queen. I call her the most perfect person in America,” she confirms. “It was insane to work with her and then be watching puppy videos together.”

When we speak, Viswanathan has moved on from cute clips of canines to a 30 Rock rewatch, as she may be about to work with the creator of that show and her other foundational text, Mean Girls. “I’m potentially doing something with Tina Fey,” she teases. “I don’t think I can say anything, because it feels like early days; but if it comes through, it will be very, very exciting.”

There seems to be no shortage of exciting things happening for Viswanathan. And if she carries on at this rate, she’s going to run out of favourite actors to work with pretty soon. “I’d like to do something with Richard Ayoade,” she says. “That would genuinely blow my mind.” Mr Ayoade, clear your schedule. You’re powerless to resist Geraldine Viswanathan in her quest to work with everyone she’s ever loved.

The Book: Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton

“I was recently in Australia and had some beach time, so I was reading [it]. I ripped through that book so fast, and I am never a fast reader. It was delightful.”

The Podcast: Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

“I’m not a huge podcast girl, but I do love an interview. Sam asks really insightful, thoughtful questions. You can tell the guests are really at ease.”

The Album: Alligator Bites Never Heal by Doechii

“I’m just obsessed with her generally. I’ve had my eye on her for a long time and felt like she was coming up, but she’s really having her moment now.”

This article originally appeared in the March 2025 issue of Empire. Photography by Sam McGuire, shot exclusively for Empire in Los Angeles. You’re Cordially Invited comes to Prime Video on 30 January.