Jennifer Garner and Judy Greer stepped back onto a “13 Going on 30” set this week, filming scenes alongside new star Emily Bader in Santa Monica, California, and fueling speculation that both actresses will appear in Netflix’s reimagining of the 2004 romantic comedy.
Set photos published Tuesday showed Garner, Greer and Bader in costume outside a building in the coastal city. Garner played Jenna Rink, a 13-year-old who wakes up in her 30-year-old body after a birthday wish goes awry, in the original film. Greer played Lucy “Tom-Tom” Wyman, Jenna’s childhood tormentor turned magazine colleague. Neither Netflix nor the production has confirmed that the pair will reprise their roles, and plot details for the new version remain sealed.
Garner has held an executive producer credit on the reboot since Netflix announced the project in March, but her presence in front of the camera was not part of the original plan. Speaking with Variety’s Marc Malkin last week, she floated the idea of sneaking into a scene rather than confirming an actual role.
She joked about angling for a spot in whatever version of the “Thriller” dance sequence made it into the new script. Greer, promoting a separate project on Apple TV at the time, said she would do anything Garner asked of her, given their working history and friendship.
Director Brett Haley previously helmed Netflix’s “People We Meet on Vacation,” another Bader vehicle that performed strongly for the streamer earlier this year. Logan Lerman stars opposite Bader in the new “13 Going on 30,” with Taylor Zakhar Perez, Jessica Alba, Adeline Rudolph, Taylor Ortega, Tim Meadows and Dan Bucatinsky rounding out the cast. Hannah Marks wrote the script, with revisions from Flora Greeson.
Mark Ruffalo, who played Jenna’s best friend Matty Flamhaff in the original, has not appeared in any set photos or been linked to the new production. The 2004 film earned $96 million worldwide and became a defining title for millennial audiences, built on the chemistry between Garner, Ruffalo and Greer. Haley has called the original “one of those rare, perfect films” and described taking on the remake as carrying real weight given how deeply audiences connected with the first version.
