Lily Tomlin Savors Playing Acerbic 'Grandma'
https://youtu.be/zc6Fo97Dhic
Lily Tomlin is not your mother's grandmother.
Director-writer Paul Weitz wrote the lead role in "Grandma" specifically with Lily Tomlin in mind and he pulled no punches. Tomlin's Elle Reid is a proud misanthrope, only to have to have her life shaken when her granddaughter, played by Julia Garner, needs help.
"I like this idea that our stereotype of grandmothers is that they're sweet old ladies or something," Weitz tells Made in Hollywood. "The thing is: Nowadays, somebody in their 70s lived through the 60s and is more likely to have a fairly edgy set of beliefs and thinking."
Which suited Tomlin just fine. She happily describes her character this way: "When things rile her up, like injustice and inequity, she doesn't like it."
"Grandma" opens Friday.
