The Big Picture

Family Switch is a body swap comedy on Netflix that follows the Walker family as they navigate life in each other’s bodies. Jennifer Garner and Emma Myers discuss their experiences filming the movie, including mimicking each other’s mannerisms and working with Weezer. Garner plays coy about rumors of her character Elektra appearing in Deadpool 3, while Myers talks about returning for Season 2 of her other Netflix project, Wednesday.

The body swap trope is a classic. It’s an effective tool to quite literally put yourself in someone else’s shoes, but it’s never been done on the scale of Netflix’s Family Switch. This holiday season, a Christmas miracle takes over the Walker family when every member of the family, down to the dog and the baby, swap bodies. In an interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, 13 Going on 30-star Jennifer Garner and her co-star, Wednesday’s Emma Myers, sit down to talk about their family comedy.

The Walkers are a busy family. Nevertheless, Jess (Garner) and Bill (Ed Helms) are determined to reconnect with their children, CC (Myers) and Wyatt (Brady Noon), but the harder they try, the more strain it causes. It would take a miracle for this family to see eye-to-eye, and that’s just what happens when a mysterious astrological reader sets a magical journey into motion. On one of the most important days of their lives – a promotion, record deal, college interview, and soccer tryout – they’ll have to figure out how to work as a family before it’s too late.

In their interview, Myers and Garner share what it’s like maneuvering a body swap comedy and how close together it brought the cast, performing with Weezer, and preparing for a car chase sequence. Myers also talks about returning for Season 2 of her other Netflix project, Wednesday, opposite Jenna Ortega, and Garner plays coy about the Elektra rumors in Deadpool 3. Check it out in the video above, or you can read the full transcript below.

Family Switch When a chance encounter with an astrological reader causes the Walkers to wake up to a full body switch, can they unite to land a promotion, college interview, record deal, and soccer tryout? Release Date November 30, 2023 Cast Jennifer Garner, Ed Helms, Emma Myers, Brady Noon, Rita Moreno, Matthias Schweighöfer, Bashir Salahuddin, Fortune Feimster, Xosha Roquemore, Paul Scheer, Andrew Bachelor, Pete Holmes, Naomi Ekperigin, Dan Finnerty, Cyrus Arnold Rating PG Runtime 101 minutes Main Genre Comedy Writers Victoria Strouse, Adam Sztykiel

COLLIDER: I have a ton of questions about this movie, but I like throwing individual questions at the beginning. So I’ll start with you, Emma. You’re involved in some show that’s popular on Netflix. I think it’s called a Wednesday.

EMMA MYERS: Yeah, maybe something like that.

Emma Myers on ‘Wednesday’ Season 2
Image via Netflix

How much are you looking forward to filming Season 2, and do you know when you’re actually filming Season 2?

MYERS: No idea when, but I am very excited to get back into it. I can’t wait to see my friends and jump back into it. It’s very strange because I’ve not done a role and then come back to do it. It’s kind of weird because you feel like you finished it, but going back into it, you’ve got to remember what you did.

JENNIFER GARNER: Dust it off.

Is Elektra Joining the MCU in ‘Deadpool 3’?
Image via 20th Century Studios

Jennifer, an individual question for you: did you ever think you were going to wear the Elektra suit again?

GARNER: I don’t know what you’re talking about. What could you mean?

[Laughs] I’m hypothetically thinking you could be in a Deadpool sequel. Hypothetically.

GARNER: Not that I’m aware of.

Okay, I’ll move on. Jumping into why I get to talk to you guys, this has to be an unusual thing getting ready to do a body swap. [To Garner] You’ve done it before, but what is it actually like the few days or before you step on set getting ready to do something like this where you’re trying to mimic someone else, but maybe you haven’t worked with them yet? You don’t really know them.

GARNER: It’s as weird as you can imagine. Truly, it’s like full actor mode. I mean, Emma, as a person, is kind of a cat, and I’m a golden retriever or a Labrador puppy, so just swapping that energy is one thing, but Jess, my character, is a boss. She’s a badass, she runs a team of people. She is responsible. She’s a grown-up, she’s a mom. And she is like a teenager who is like, “There’s so much pressure on me. You don’t understand anything. I am a soccer star. Everyone’s relying on me. The whole school is looking at me, and you don’t even care.” So, we played it as puppies. We played it as follow the leader. We mirrored.

MYERS: Smelling each other’s feet.

GARNER: We did it all.

MYERS: Rolling on the floor. It’s strange.

GARNER: We’re very comfortable together.

Say It Ain’t So… Weezer Rocks Out in ‘Family Switch’

I might be one of the few that noticed, but what I was excited about was noticing the band Weezer is in the movie. I’m a big fan. In the third act when you get to perform with them, and I want to know how nervous are you to step on stage with an actual rock band that is famous and really good?

GARNER: Really nervous. And it was pretty clear the second they started that they’re the real deal and we are not.

MYERS: I can’t sing, so that just immediately made me nervous.

GARNER: But Ed had us covered. He made us look good. Ed’s for real.

I said to him years ago, “release albums.” He’s a talented musician for real.

GARNER: Yes. For real.

So you see the schedule, you know what you’re going to be shooting, what is the day you have circled in terms of, “I cannot wait to film this or I am dreading filming this?” Outside of the Weezer sequence.

GARNER: I couldn’t wait to do the party dance sequence. And honestly, it was every bit as much fun as I ever could have hoped. Beth nicely choreographed it, and she came in and just did something that we could all handle right away, even Ed, and it just grew to be more and more fun as the night went on.

MYERS: I couldn’t wait to do the car chase. That was very fun. I’ve never done one of those before. So, getting on the highway…

GARNER: It’s legit. It doesn’t matter if it’s a comedy, you’re still doing a car chase.

Family Switch is available to stream on Netflix starting tomorrow.

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