Emma Myers and Brady Noon have signed on to join the cast of Family Leave, which McG is directing for Netflix. Based on the New York Times bestseller Bedtime for Mommy by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, the family film will be a body swap comedy in the vein of Freaky Friday. MovieWeb previously announced that Jennifer Garner and Ed Helms would star as well.
A plot summary, as provided by Deadline, says that Jess (Garner) and Bill Walker (Helms) are doing their best to keep their family connected as their two kids, CC (Myers) and Wyatt (Noon), grow more independent and distant with age. But, after a chance encounter with an astrological reader causes the family to wake up to a full-body switch, the family has to unite to get through the most important day of each of their lives.
Myers is best known for her role as Enid Sinclair on Wednesday. She’s the title character’s roommate, though several people, even within the cast, think the two should be more than that. Additional credits include the thriller Girl in the Basement with Judd Nelson and the holiday movie A Taste of Christmas with Lauren LaVera.
Noon currently stars in The Might Ducks: Game Changers as Evan Morrow, the hockey-playing son of Lauren Graham’s Alex. Besides that, he’s best known for playing Tommy Darmody in Boardwalk Empire, the son of Atlantic City gangster Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt).
Myers’ Audition
According to Tudum, Myers’ audition for the film was a little untraditional. Since the plot required her to act like her other castmates due to the body swap, Myers had to prove her skills as an impressionist to get the role. To do so, she performed the ‘To be or not to be’ monologue from Hamlet, which she didn’t think went well.
“I thought it was the stupidest thing ever. I was like, ‘This is such a bad impression, this is never going to happen.’ But apparently they liked it!”
In order to play a character trapped in another character’s body, Myers would need to do more than simple vocal mimicry. According to Myers, she has a movement coach that she’s been doing exercises with. They play around with how different characters would act. That also involved a lot of improvisation and mimicking each other.
“There’s a lot of practice that goes into it, which is definitely helpful for me.”
Going into the training, Myers already had plenty of experience observing the people playing her parents. She’s seen The Office multiple time, where Helms played Andy Bernard from seasons three to nine. She also watches 13 Going on 30, another body swap movie starring Garner as Jenna Rink, whenever she visits one of her friends.
“Every time I’d go over to one of my friend’s houses we’d be like, ‘OK, what movie are we gonna watch tonight?’ . 'Oh, how about we watch 13 Going on 30? Oh, we watched that last time, but come on, we gotta watch it again!’ We’d always watch that movie.”
Though a release date for Family Leave has yet to be announced, fans can see Myers in Wednesday, currently streaming on Netflix, while Noon continues his role in The Might Ducks: Game Changers on Disney+.