Family Switch Interview: Jennifer Garner & Emma Myers On Playing Each Other & McG’s Directing

Family Switch follows the Walker’s, a normal American family made up of Jess, her husband Bill, their 16-year-old daughter CC, their 14-year-old son Wyatt, and 2-year-old Miles. While the parents and teenagers struggle to understand one another’s perspectives, a strange event at the Griffith Park Planetarium will force them to walk a mile in each other’s shoes, literally. As teenagers learn the truth about adult responsibilities and their parents begin to understand the pressures of being teenagers today, they will need to work together to fix their body swaps.

Family Switch is directed by McG based on a script written by Adam Sztykiel and Victoria Strouse. The movie is based on the Amy Krouse Rosenthal book Bedtime for Mommy. Family Switch stars Jennifer Garner, Ed Helms, Emma Myers, Brady Noon, and Rita Moreno.

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Screen Rant interviewed Family Switch stars Jennifer Garner and Emma Myers. They discussed McG’s supportive directing style and how they captured one another’s nuances in their performances. Garner also shared her thoughts about potentially reprising her role as Elektra in the MCU.

Jennifer Garner & Emma Myers Talk Family Switch

Screen Rant: First of all, guys, this film is so much fun. You guys did such a great job of playing the nuances during the switch that it really brings everything to life. Tell me about your characters, CC and Jess Walker, their relationship with each other, and how we see that explored throughout the film.

Jennifer Garner: Great, how do we do this as quickly as possible?

Emma Myers: Okay. CC-

Jennifer Garner: Soccer star.

Emma Myers: Soccer star, misunderstood teen wants her mom to understand.

Jennifer Garner: Badass at work, under too much pressure, not good at delegating, wishes her daughter would be more well-rounded.

Emma, I was talking to McG and he said prior to shooting that Jennifer invited all of you guys over to her house for dinner and you guys had some fun activities to really kind of create the family bond. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Emma Myers: We were doing some weird things. We were all playing puppies and smelling each other’s feet and trying to figure out who was who while we were blindfolded. It was a good bonding experience.

Jennifer Garner: There’s something about just sometimes acting. You have to go to the weird place, and I think a movement Coach Rie is my favorite movement coach, and she’s just really talented at making you get outside of what’s normal and experience another character in a different way.

Emma does such a great job of playing Jess. She really captures your nuances really, really well. What did she bring to the role of Jess that wasn’t on the page?

Jennifer Garner: She showed me a stillness that I then incorporated because Emma is somebody who really just sits back and watches and is super still, and I incorporated that into Jess a little bit more.

McG has done it all. He’s done film, television, music videos, shorts, but he hasn’t done a holiday movie. What did McG’s directing style add to The Family Switch Emma?

Emma Myers: Oh my goodness.

Jennifer Garner: Oh my gosh.

Emma Myers: He was always joyful, joyful, goofy.

Jennifer Garner: He’s your biggest cheerleader. You cannot, not feel confident around McG. He is going to boost you up and just make you feel like you can go out there and give the best performance of your life.

Emma Myers: Exactly.

Jennifer, this film also stars Rita Moreno and she is an absolute legend. Can you talk about working with her and getting to share the screen with her?

Jennifer Garner: Well, we were beyond thrilled when Rita said yes to this. I couldn’t even believe, I really was very nervous to even meet her. I mean, she is an absolute legend, and yeah, I was just so inspired by how much she knew exactly what she wanted to get out of a scene, exactly how she wanted to be treated, and yet was somehow still incredibly easygoing.

This film is all about switching, and I did a little digging on IMDb and there’s a handful of projects. So if you got to switch with some of Jennifer’s projects in her filmography, between, and I’m reading this from IMDb, Alias, Peppermint, and Deadpool 3, which would you switch with?

Emma Myers: I think Peppermint’s pretty cool. I don’t know. It’s pretty badass. So I’d say that.

Jennifer, if you could switch with some of Emma’s filmography. We have Wednesday, Southern Gospel, and Girl in the Basement. Which one would you want to switch with?

Jennifer Garner: I would definitely go Wednesday so I could be with my little sweet Jenna Ortega.

Tere’s tons of rumors that you are probably reuniting or could be reuniting with Shawn Levy for Deadpool 3, but I’m not going to ask you if you’re going to be in Deadpool 3 because you probably couldn’t even answer that even if you were. But would you want to revisit the character of Elektra at some point in your career?

Jennifer Garner: That seems like a lot of work.

About Family Switch

When a chance encounter with an astrological reader causes the family to wake up to a full body switch –– on the morning of the most important day of each of their lives –– can the Walkers unite to land a promotion, college interview, record deal, and soccer tryout?