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EXCLUSIVE Interview with Greer Grammer of AWKWARD.

Mike Vicic - April 14, 2014

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Greer Grammer, who plays Lissa on AWKWARD., recently spoke with TV Tango, and she answered 20 questions about the series and her own life. In our one-on-one interview, Greer gave us the inside scoop about Lissa's neck brace, her character's newly adopted brother, and how Lissa challenges Sadie for the cheer captaincy. Plus, Greer revealed how she got a black eye on set, and discussed her ambitions to star in a sitcom with her sister and in a play with her dad. 

 

 

On Tuesday, April 15, 2014, MTV will broadcast an all-day marathon (3am-9pm ET/PT) of encore episodes of AWKWARD. -- from the Season 1 finale through the end of Season 3. Then, at 10pm ET/PT, MTV will present the Season 4 premiere of AWKWARD., as Jenna, now a senior, is determined to make a fresh start, and lingering feelings for Matty harden her resolve. During the rest of Season 4, Jenna endures more boy trouble, drama with her friends, a new girl in town who has eyes for Matty and even some catfishing.

 


Source: MTV Press

TV Tango: Last season Lissa was dropped, hit by a bat, and trampled. Will she be back in a neck brace again this season?


Greer Grammer: No, thank goodness! That neck brace was actually horrible to wear, and now I have a respect for any actor whose ever had to wear one, because it's so painful.

 

TV Tango: How many episodes did you have to wear it for?


Greer Grammer: Something like eight or nine. I was in it a lot last season. I think it finally came off like in episode 15. I feel like I didn't get it off until late in the season. It was funny, but it was just so painful. Neck braces aren't good for you if you don't have a neck problem.

TV Tango: Did it cause any neck problems for you?


Greer Grammer: Yes, I had to go to the chiropractor after I stopped filming in it -- my neck was just so messed up. It was hard, but I'm fine now.

 

TV Tango: Did you keep the neck brace as a memento?


Greer Grammer: Oh, no. I wish I did! That'd be hilarious. I don't know what happened to it -- just one day it was gone. But it was so cool, because it was all bedazzled.

 

TV Tango: What's been your own worst injury in real life?


Greer Grammer: I, surprisingly, haven't been injured that much. And I danced my whole life, so it's kind of crazy that nothing happened with my feet or I didn't break an ankle. But, recently, I was on set and it was late at night. We were filming at Big Bear for the last episode of the first half of Season 4. I was running to get back onto the van, and I didn't see that one of the jockey boxes on the truck was lowered. I ran straight into the corner of it, and it hit me in the eye -- I had a black eye for like two weeks. It was horrible. Then, I had to ride back in this van all the way home from Big Bear with ice on my face for three hours. Everyone was like, "What's going to happen now?" And I was like, "I have to go to work -- unless they want to write Lissa out of the rest of the episodes, which doesn't make any sense." It was crazy, because they had to give me the next day off work and then after that it was lots of makeup. It was terrible, so I can't wait to see how those episodes come out, because they did a really good job of covering it.


Source: MTV Press

TV Tango: What can you tell us about Lissa's adopted baby brother, Tyler?


Greer Grammer: The Millers adopt a kid. After three seasons Lissa finally got a last name -- she's Lissa Miller. When we first see them, Lissa's in Africa, so they adopt her brother from Africa. We call him the baby brother, but he may, or may not, be a baby. It's kind of fun to see what happens. Now that there's a new kid in the family, Lissa kind of feels left out by her mom. I don't want to say there are jealousy issues, but she's dealing with everything being about Tyler. Nobody cares about Lissa anymore. Nobody cares that she's doing a really good job at cheer practice. It's just Tyler, Tyler, Tyler all the time. It's kind of fun to see that dynamic play.

TV Tango: Without telling us who wins, tease something about the battle between Lissa and Sadie for cheer captain?


Greer Grammer: Lissa kind of gets thrown into this election for cheer captain -- not against her will, but she doesn't seek it out. It just kind of happens that someone else nominates her, and so it just kind of becomes this thing. Cheer captain's always been Sadie's. Nobody's ever fought her for it. It creates this dynamic between Sadie and Lissa, which is really fun to watch. And I love doing all my scenes with Molly [Tarlov, who plays Sadie] -- she's great! She's so funny! We love working together, because we both go really fast and get our stuff done easy -- and we're both funny.

 

TV Tango: What else do we learn about Lissa in Season 4?


Greer Grammer: You get to meet her family. You just get to know more about Lissa. She's always been kind of the dumb, ditzy sidekick for Sadie, and now you get to see her family environment. Toward the end of the first half of Season 4, Lissa and Jake get to talk, which is really nice, because everyone kind of forgets that they dated in the first season. It's never really touched upon after their breakup, so Brett [Davern, who plays Jake] and I got to have some really, really cool scenes together, where we just kind of talk and you can tell that they were friends before everything. It was really nice.

 

TV Tango: What do you think Lissa has planned after high school?


Greer Grammer: College! Lissa's applying to college at Christ-centered schools. She's definitely applying to all Christian schools. There's actually an episode where we talk about what schools she's applying to. She's higher than you think, as far as class placements go. In the Season 4 premiere, someone leaks the class placements, and there's a line that Tamara says that I think is "Lissa gets good grades?!?" I think Lissa is like 32 or something. They had it in one of the promos, but my number is upside down [see photo for this section]. Yeah, Lissa's going to go to college, I think.

 

TV Tango: I think Season 4 is going to end with spring break instead of graduation. What do you think Lissa might do during her spring break?


Greer Grammer: I haven't even thought about this. I hope there's going to be a thing where everybody goes and travels or does the same thing. In college everybody goes to Cabo for spring break, so I'm kind of hoping, even though we're in high school, that it's a similar thing -- that everyone from Palos Hills goes to Hawaii for spring break, or goes somewhere cool, like Hawaii. As long as it's not Tijuana. I've never even thought about what Lissa might do for spring break. Maybe she would go to Jesus camp -- that'd be cool to do again. But my hope is Hawaii.

 

TV Tango: Did you get to do anything for your senior spring break this year?


Greer Grammer: No, I have never been on spring break in college, because I've been filming every single spring break. The first two seasons, we only did like 12 episodes, so we started in March, and I think I started work the week of spring break the first and second seasons. Then, in the third and fourth seasons, we stopped halfway through my spring break. We finished filming on like a Thursday, so I technically had like four days of spring break, and then it was back to school. I was so jealous though, because this year all my roommates went to Disney World for spring break, and I'm the biggest Disney fan there is -- and I've never been to Disney World. But I can't complain much, because I was working -- I could be unemployed.


Source: MTV Press

TV Tango: What was different working with new showrunners, Chris Alberghini and Mike Chessler?


Greer Grammer: They're so excited to be here, and that's awesome. Having the new showrunners come in kind of brought a new energy to the set. You know, you work on something for three years and it just kind of gets routine. It was so nice to have them come in, especially because they were fans of the show beforehand. To have them come and be so happy and excited for the characters and excited for the storylines, it brought an energy where everyone was so happy to be at work. They're the sweetest and they're so cool. They've been nothing but great and so easy to talk to. It's really great to have people who are excited to be there.

TV Tango: When they met with you, what did you share about your perspective of Lissa?


Greer Grammer: This is the thing I've said since Season 1. Lissa gets categorized as being dumb, but she's not. She's naive and very simple-minded, but she's not dumb. She understands what's going on, but she just gets confused, because she's so naive. That's the main thing that I said. Every time that there's some line that doesn't work or doesn't feel like Lissa, I have no problem going up and saying, "She wouldn't say this." The really great thing that I love is that they were so good about writing more for Sadie and Lissa. In Seasons 1 and 2, they got in a fight, Lissa had to forgive Sadie, and Lissa kind of stood up and realized all this stuff. And then third season, it kind of got washed away. Sadie went back to treating Lissa like crap, and there was no talking that they had been through all of this stuff. Sadie, I think, called her a dumb person all the time and just didn't care about Lissa anymore, which is funny because in Season 2 Sadie fights so hard to win Lissa back as a friend. It was always weird to me that it was completely overlooked, so this season they really brought a lot of that back, which is nice.


Photo Credit: Angelo Kritkos

TV Tango: While filming Season 4, what behind-the-scenes antics made you laugh hardest on set?


Greer Grammer: Everything always makes me laugh. Everything's funny. We're just a funny set to be on. But my favorite thing so far that happened, we were all filming this giant scene together -- one of the lunch scenes where everyone comes in and kind of does their thing. We're all on set. I think it was like Episode 11 or 10 -- it's toward the end of the season. We were so tired. It was late at night, and we had been working for so long. We were rehearsing because nobody could get their lines, and Beau [Mirchoff, who plays Matty] came in and his line was "Jenna." He said "Jenna" like Forrest Gump. It was so funny! It's just little things like that. We just always kind of goof off. Brett [Davern] and Molly [Tarlov] one time got into a thing where they just kept singing "Rent." We're just goofy.

TV Tango: Which character on AWKWARD. do you think would have a college experience that most closely matches your's so far?


Greer Grammer: Probably Tamara. I think Tamara would be really involved. She probably wants to go to a sorority. I almost feel like she would be going more for the college experience than actual classes. I love my classes. I'm a theater major and the theater program is amazing at USC, but the main reason I chose USC was I wanted to have a football team and to have Greek life. I wanted the whole college experience, and I feel that that's something that Tamara would want. I could see her being super involved in her sorority, which I was. I was Assistant Rush Chair my sophomore year, and all these different positions. I loved it! Before USC, I went to boarding school. I went to Idyllwild Arts Academy for two years, so that was basically like a conservatory college program for high schoolers. Then I did home school for junior and senior year, so I didn't really get a normal high-school experience. That's why I wanted to go to a big college, because I didn't go to a big high school.

Source: MTV.com

TV Tango: What's your favorite red-carpet event?


Greer Grammer: This is tough! But I love the VMAs. It's so fun. The carpet's always so crazy. And it's such a good show. I love it. Plus, the VMAs are really cool. [In the photo to the left, Greer attends the 2013 VMAs in Brooklyn with AWKWARD.'s Jillian Rose Reed (L) and Jessica Lu (R).]

TV Tango: What project would like to work on with any of your family members -- either Kelsey (dad) or Spencer (sister)?


Greer Grammer: I'd love to do a ton of stuff, especially with my sister. My sister and I secretly want to do a sitcom, kind of based on our lives but also kind of different. We both really want to do it, but we just need to come up with sort of a concrete thing, but I think it'd be great.

 

Actually, I took a directing class last year in school and there's a Neil Simon play "I Ought to Be in Pictures," and I secretly thought that would be a great play for me and my dad to do, because we both love theater so much. It has a pretty small cast and everyone gets to interact, and I just always read it like "This would be so great for my dad and me."