Molly Gordon and Geraldine Viswanathan Bring Their Real-Life Friendship to the Screen in Oh, Hi
Molly Gordon and Geraldine Viswanathan are getting ready for a night out. Beauty products take over every surface, and the sounds of Chappell Roan and Clairo fill the rare moments of silence. Yet the best-friend duo isn’t primping for any old GNO: A crew of hair stylists, makeup artists, publicists, and friends—namely, actor Owen Thiele and his boyfriend, stylist Jared Ellner—have assembled to get Gordon and Viswanathan ready for the New York premiere of their new film, Sophie Brooks’s Oh, Hi.
Their friendship began, as so many do, online. Before they first worked together on the 2020 film The Broken Hearts Gallery, Gordon was taken by Viswanathan’s performance in the 2018 sex comedy Blockers. “I thought she was so amazing, and I wanted to be a friend, so I feel like I manifested this friendship,” Gordon says.
From her perch in the living room, hair in the clutches of a curling iron, Gordon tries to recall if she reached out to Viswanathan via DM or with a much more public tweet. “Ger?” she calls into the kitchen, where Viswanathan is getting her glam done. “Did I tweet at you?”
When Viswanathan confirms this, Gordon groans. “I tweeted at her. Even more embarrassing.”
Oh, Hi stars Gordon as Iris, a young woman on her first romantic getaway with the guy she’s been seeing, Isaac (Logan Lerman). Isaac, however, doesn’t want a relationship right now, so after a post-coital fight—when Iris decides to leave him handcuffed to their bed—she calls Viswanathan’s Max and her boyfriend, Kenny (John Reynolds), for help. Half-hearted murder plots are hatched, potions are brewed, and magic spells are cast naked in the moonlight. (“I had a butt double in the movie,” Viswanathan admits. “They sent me a photo of an ass, and they were like, ‘Do you approve of this ass?’ And I was like, ‘This is the most incredible ass that I’ve ever seen.’”)
It didn’t take too much imagination for the duo to embrace their roles; both have helped the other through breakups and heartache in real life. “We’ve both shown up at each other’s doorsteps in a mess and have put each other back together,” Viswanathan says.
“Rejection is the hardest thing to face,” Gordon adds. “But we’ve all been friends for so long now, so we’ve all helped each other fall more in love with ourselves too.”
Occasionally going through it has only deepened their friendship—creating some unforgettable moments along the way. “Geraldine and I had a really funny experience doing mushrooms and taking these nude photos in Joshua Tree together, and I was like, ‘I’ve never looked more hot in my entire life,’” Gordon says. The sober light of a new day, however, changed their minds. “We see the Polaroids the next morning, and they’re truly the most disgusting pictures I’ve ever seen in my entire life. They’re horrifying.”
“Who’d you send them to, Molly?” Viswanathan chimes in.
“I then, by accident, sent a picture of Geraldine and me showing off our asses to a male actor that I worked with once, because I am really bad at phone stuff,” Gordon continues. “But Geraldine forgave me, and we’re still friends.” Thank goodness for that.
Below, Molly Gordon and Geraldine Viswanathan get ready for the premiere of Oh, Hi.
Photo: Alexandra Arnold1/12
Photo: Alexandra Arnold2/12
