Greg Kinnear paved the way as the first host of Talk Soup, guest-starred in Friends and served as the lead in multiple movies — but it’s hard for him to nail down one specific favorite.
In an exclusive interview, the actor, 60, took a look back at his previous projects and revealed which one was most significant. “I’ve done quite a bit, so it’s hard to always kind of wrangle [a] specific one,” he told Us while promoting his new film, Sight. “A lot of people didn’t see it, but I liked this little movie we did called Flash of Genius a few years ago, which was about Bob Kerns, who invented the intermittent windshield wiper.”
“Nobody wanted to see a movie about windshield wipers, as it turns out,” he quipped.
Another film that sticks out? 1997’s As Good As It Gets, costarring Jack Nicholson. “It was a great experience for me. We had an incredible cast and I was always like, ‘Why aren’t we doing another one?’ I was always telling Jim [director James L. Brooks], ‘We should do another one,’” Kinnear shared of the film that earned him an Academy Award nomination. “But the truth is, his instincts were right. It’s best left alone.”
Kinnear makes it clear he isn’t one to look back in the rearview mirror — “I generally don’t often think I should have painted the fence differently [even if] sometimes I say, ‘Eh, should I have made that fence?’” — but there are other films that hold a special place in his heart.
“Little Miss Sunshine is great,” he shared. “I just saw [directors] John [Dayton] and Val [Faris], and Abigail [Breslin] at a Searchlight screening. It was nice to see everybody from that movie.”
Kinnear is equally as proud to star in Sight, a film based on the true story of Dr. Ming Wang (portrayed by Terry Chen), who revolutionized eye surgery. Though the actor admits the script sat on his table “for a bit” when he received it during the COVID pandemic, once he picked it up, he couldn’t put it down.
“Reading Dr. Wang’s story and his history surviving the Chinese cultural revolution, and finding his way to MIT with literally a few dollars in his pocket was an incredible Chinese American story of immigration that I thought told an interesting journey,” Kinnear explained.
In the film, Kinnear portrays Misha Bartnovsky, Dr. Wang’s right-hand man who gently pushes him to not give up on making strides in the medical field. “The way they structured the friendship was that I’m kind of Tony Robbins-ing him forward and trying to inspire him and help him, but he doesn’t make it easy,” he told Us. “In a romantic comedy, I’d be the friend of the guy who’s saying, ‘You can do it!’ This is a different kind of story — but a kind of similar role, where it’s a guy trying to help his friend as best as he possibly can.”
As a father of three, Kinnear had to navigate a delicate balance when tackling some of the difficult material, including a “disturbing” story involving Kajal, a young Indian girl who went blind after acid was poured into her eyes. Having the real-life Dr. Wang on set to help guide the cast through the scenes was helpful, Kinnear said. “He was a really great resource and helped set the table for whatever it was we were doing at any given time, giving us all a sense of what was at stake.”
Kinnear admits the film put “everything” into perspective during a tumultuous time — and he hopes viewers take away the same message, adding, “I thought it was really inspiring.”
Sight is now in theaters.
