After Big Love aired its final episode, star Ginner Goodwin had already moved on to greener pastures including securing a starring role in Something Borrowed.
The film, based on the international smash novel of the same name by Emily Giffin, stars Goodwin, Kate Hudson, super-hottie Colin Egglesfield and John Krasinski. Goodwin met us at the Casa Del Mar hotel in Santa Monica to dish the best parts of making Something Borrowed (a friendship with Kate Hudson!), as well as her new TV pilot where she plays a kick-butt Snow White!
Ginnifer Goodwin on Something Borrowed
SheKnows: You’ve been these supporting cute people, but this is the lead. Kate is an Academy Award nominee, and when you got the lead were you surprised? What was your reaction to getting the part?
Ginnifer Goodwin: I was shocked! I was shocked and I was nervous to be honest about carrying the story in the way that Rachel does, but not because she’s the lead but because she’s a far more subtle character than the characters surrounding her. And I’m not really used to playing someone as flushed out as I hope we meet her. I’m not used to playing someone so straight and narrow and I was terrified of being boring.
SheKnows: You weren’t.
Ginnifer Goodwin: Thank you! It was a very real insecurity and I think I checked in with John a lot about that. Margene, on Big Love, is more of the comedic relief.
SheKnows: Everything depends on what happens to her in Something Borrowed.
Ginnifer Goodwin: I watched the movie and it was verified that I was actually silent through most of it. There aren’t actually a ton of lines coming out of rituals now, so it was really important to also tell the story in the looks and energies of the other relationships of the characters. I was very nervous.
SheKnows: How do you personally judge your Something Borrowed character?
Ginnifer Goodwin: I judge her harshly and what inspired me to play her was the challenge of wanting to have sympathy for her and therefore helping the audience find sympathy for her because I think she made poor decisions at just about every turn. I don’t agree with how she went about anything. If you step back from it and look at it she not only handed Dex over on a silver platter to Darcy but when she became involved with him instead of taking responsibility for that action, she repeated that action and she lied about it and lied about it and covered and covered and covered. And only gets him in the end because she gets busted. I feel that in any other story, I’m positive that she would be the antagonist, and making her the protagonist, this was really fun.
SheKnows: It’s such a female-driven movie with you and Kate and Hilary (Swank, producer) — did you have a lot of fun in between takes? What did you do? Did you hang out together?
Ginnifer Goodwin: We did! We only have a very boring answer for you that we got along like gangbusters. There was no actor drama. We all became fast friends immediately and had an amazing support system at work and then after work we really did go have glasses of wine and dinner every night. Even when we all went to the Hamptons there were nights when we all were going to go out and we ended up just in John’s room [laughs], all of us. It was just one of those happy places.
SheKnows: Did you discover any new places while you were filming in any of the new locations?
Ginnifer Goodwin: I’ve never been to the Hamptons. In New York City, Kate has a place there and John has a place there, and I was probably the only one who really didn’t know anything about New York, so I was introduced to a new world.
Finding Emily Giffin’s world
SheKnows: What kind of resource was Emily Giffin in honing the characters?
Ginnifer Goodwin: We relied on the source material more than anything. She was absolutely available to any of us and what was really special to me was that she trusted us. The very nature of translating it into another medium is that things are going to get lost and it’s impossible to be 100-percent faithful. But she was all in. She let us do our thing.
SheKnows: Were you a fan of the books?
Ginnifer Goodwin: Yes, and us actors were always fighting for moments in the book that we felt were paramount to the storytelling. There was even a scene, which I will not get into what it is, but it was cut for quite some time. It was so important to a lot of us — not because it serves the movie in any way, but because the fans of the book will categorically miss it if it’s not there. And we were able to get it back in the movie purely because of that because you have to honor the fans if you’re going to tell the story.
SheKnows: Are you a pro at badminton now? That scene is hilarious…
Ginnifer Goodwin: [Laughs] No, I’m a pro at hitting people in the face.
SheKnows: Did you have badminton doubles?
Ginnifer Goodwin: No, that was us! Unfortunately!
Ginnifer Goodwin is Snow White
SheKnows: You have navigated the TV and movie worlds. Is that what you want to continue doing now that you have Snow White coming up?
Ginnifer Goodwin: I wasn’t expecting to dive right back into television, but honestly it’s been a really long time since I have read a script of substance in the movie world. I have been nervous that I wouldn’t be able to find something creatively fulfilling and so I started to read pilots again. I did find one that I adored and I shot it within a couple of months of wrapping up Big Love and it will hopefully get picked up next month. Who knows! But I’ve definitely opened up that door and I’ve loved the TV life. I’ve always had creative ADD. I’ve always thought that I needed to jump from one character to another. In about the third season of Big Love, it was nice to develop a character over so many years. Watching her grow and change is satisfying in a whole different way.
SheKnows: You mentioned future projects, of which Snow White is one, can you tell me how your portrayal will be different than the storybook character?
Ginnifer Goodwin: I’m not allowed to say very much [laughs]. A person who was behind Lost is developing this project, and they are going to treat it in the same way that they did Lost in how secretive they’re going to make us be. But I will say that what they’ve done with Snow White, they’re turning the story on its head and what impresses me the most is that Disney and ABC for the first time in their history have written off on it. They’re letting us represent Snow White as something of a bad ass, I have to say. I’m really excited about where they’re letting us go with the character that they’ve actually literally worked to trademark. So the story is sort of a study of time and what time is.
SheKnows: And wardrobe fittings? Putting on the Snow White outfit?
Ginnifer Goodwin: We shot it! It was glorious. It was like being on an enormous cloud. I don’t think I can talk about it. I was really told I’m not allowed to talk about it and I don’t want to get in trouble, but everything in me… I’m lighting candles in my house and pleas to the God that ABC please pick us up because it was some of the most fun I’ve had in years… years and years and years.
SheKnows: Your Snow White likes to kick butt?
Ginnifer Goodwin: Yeah, [laughs] she’s something of a bad ass.
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