'13 Going on 30' star Judy Greer says that fans called her 'awful' because they assumed she was like her sneaky character

• "13 Going on 30" star Judy Greer told Insider that fans assumed she was mean like her character Lucy.
• Greer said that people told her she was "awful," "mean," "a b----," and "a terrible person."
• "I'm like, 'You know, that's a role, right? Like I was acting,'" the actress said.

Judy Greer says that "13 Going on 30" fans assumed that she was just like her sneaky character Lucy Wyman.

"After the movie came out, people used to come up to me a lot and tell me I was awful. I was mean. I was a b----. I was a terrible person," the 45-year-old actress told Insider in an interview for the movie's 17-year anniversary.

"I'm like, 'You know that's a role, right? Like, I was acting,'" she continued.

Greer, who's been acting professionally since the '90s, has starred in a variety of films and shows - from romantic comedies like "27 Dresses" to sitcoms like "Arrested Development." She also plays Scott Lang/Ant-Man's ex-wife named Maggie Lang in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and voiced the character Cheryl Tunt on the long-running animated series "Archer."

Greer told Insider that it was "unusual" for her to portray a character like Lucy, Jenna Rink's (Jennifer Garner) best friend and coworker at the fictional magazine Poise, at the time "13 Going on 30" was released.

"I was always playing silly, happy, quirky roles," she said.

"And this was definitely more of a stretch. Unfortunately, not more of a stretch for me because I definitely have a b----y side," Greer joked. "But I didn't ever really get to express that at work."

Despite playing Garner's on-screen frenemy in "13 Going on 30," the two are best friends in real life. Greer also told Insider that she would apologize to Garner after filming scenes that required her to be snarky.

"It was really hard to be mean to Jen," Greer said. "I remember being mean to her in scenes, and then after a cut just being like, 'Ugh, I'm so sorry.' And then sometimes I remember we would be in the middle of a scene, and they would cut, and she would just be like, 'You're so mean!'"

Greer said that nowadays, fans will recognize her from any given project she's done over the past few decades, "but it always sort of comes back to '13 Going on 30.'"

"And no longer do people think I'm a mean person like that character," she added. "People just love the movie. It's universally loved."

The actress also said that when people do realize who she is, they "have a hard time expressing their feelings in words."

When she asks fans what aspect of "13 Going on 30" resonates so deeply more than a decade later, she'll often hear, "it's my movie with my mom" or "it's my movie with my best friend."

"You know how you have a song with people? You have a movie with people, so I think in a lot of ways, this movie has connected people to each other," Greer said. "So it will always have a special place in their hearts and that will last forever."