Max Greenfield is an actor most known for his work on TV, having appeared in shows like Ugly Betty, Veronica Mars, and New Girl. But is also known for his voice acting, having voiced Roger in the Ice Age franchise. Now he’ll be portraying David in the upcoming film adaptation of Jeannette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle.
Screen Rant got a chance to talk with Max Greenfield on press day, where we discussed what David learned from Jeannette, what it was like balancing the responsibility of the story with Jeannette on set, and what he could tell us about I Am Not Here.
Your character David becomes a bit of a con. I know that he’s an accountant, but he becomes a bit of a con man himself in a way with all of these things that he’s doing at dinner. Are those things that he probably learned from Jeannette along the way?
Max Greenfield: This is an interesting question because we definitely didn’t want you to feel that these moves were like they are getting over on people. I think it was a push and pull with both of the characters. When is the appropriate time to dodge this question? How is the appropriate way to answer this question? And I think he takes liberty. I think, you know, in the first scene you see him taking his liberties when she is more averse to it. And then later on you see him trying to divert that conversation and she is obviously not okay with it anymore.
Sure. And it seems to me that as much of a difference that Rex and David have, obviously they are polar opposites, but it seems like David to me took some of the more colorful qualities of Rex and somewhat used that to his advantage and I liked that about the character of David actually. It was really interesting to me.
You were surrounded by a tremendous cast and how was it balancing with Jeannette being on set and all of you guys doing this stuff?
Max Greenfield: So a lot of the scenes I was in were tonally a little bit different, which were all like so emotionally devastating and heavy and I know she was on set for some of those. But I remember Jeannette was there for two of the scenes. She’s in one of the scenes we shot.
Really?
Max Greenfield: She is like walking. When we are leaving the restaurant in the first scene, she and her husband are walking behind us and then she stopped, but I had met her once more when she stopped by when we were doing another scene. But for me and I’m sort of the only character who’s actually playing a real person. I’m loosely based on someone. So I didn’t have that responsibility, but you know having her there was just a real reminder of what a responsibility we all had to tell the story and thank God she liked it. Because could you imagine if she didn’t?
What can you tell me about I Am Not Here?
Max Greenfield: Oh, yeah! I don’t know. I haven’t seen anything from that.
Really?
Max Greenfield: Yeah. Have you seen it?
No. I haven’t seen it. That’s why I’m asking.
Max Greenfield: I don’t know. It was a blast to work on.
