Paget Brewster went from playing a small role as Joey's girlfriend and Chandler's love interest on "Friends," to a longtime FBI agent on "Criminal Minds," to a school consultant on "Community." As someone who has had her fair share of diverse roles, playing a grandma at 46 alongside John Stamos probably never even crossed her mind. People have a hard enough time believing the one and only Stamos is even playing a grandpa on "Grandfathered," but that's what makes the show great, and that's what makes it stand out from the rest. The funniest thing about it is it's all mathematically possible, people just have such an image of what a grandma and grandpa should look like in their head - and the beautiful Brewster and Stamos typically aren't what come to mind.
In the new hit sitcom, Stamos, who plays a 52-year-old single guy living the luxurious and typical bachelor life, finds out he not only has a son, but a granddaughter as well. With Brewster being the only girl he's ever loved - and the one that got away - Josh Peck as their child and Christina Milian as Peck's baby mama, it's impossible to not laugh as "Grandfathered" follows the different relationships between these four incredible actors who have such great chemistry on and off screen as they try to become a family after years of being apart.
She went on to guest star on many popular shows like "Modern Family" and "Key & Peele," but she wasn't being offered any big roles that she loved. After so many years, and so much experience on "Criminal Minds," Brewster was lucky she was someone who could afford to take time off so she could wait for the script that she knew was the right one. "I was grateful I had that choice," she said. "It wasn't easy! It was really scary and there were a lot of days I was like, 'Oh God, what did I do! I made a huge mistake!'" But then, "Grandfathered" came along and gave her a new experience in her career that she loved.
Her career is coming to a full circle as she started in comedy in a little show called "Friends" - ever heard of it? She only appeared in just six episodes in 1997 as Joey's girlfriend Kathy, but that was all she needed to be remembered, mostly for her voice, by "Friends" fans forever. "I'll be standing on line at the supermarket and someone in another line will say 'excuse me' because they recognize my voice," Brewster explained, which to me, is totally believable because the second we started talking, all I could picture was "The One With Chandler In A Box." It was because of scenes like that that she became the incredible actress she is today, and she has Matthew Perry to thank for that.
"I haven't seen Matthew Perry! He's right around the corner from us, like two stages over, and I haven't seen him yet!" she said of where they're currently filming "And I owe him my career. And I know him, I love him, he's a really sweet guy. I think the last time I saw him he said, 'You need to start telling people I'm responsible for your career.' And I was like, 'Well you are, so I could do that.'"
With "Friends" being one of the most iconic shows of a generation, it makes you wonder if a show like "Grandfathered" has the potential to be that great. "I mean, I think any actor you talk to, if they say they don't want it to become huge, they're lying," Brewster revealed. "If they don't put together their Emmy speech in their head, they're lying, but I don't link 'Grandfathered' to 'Friends.' If it's really successful, that'd be great! I'd be really happy about that, but I don't compare the two. I don't think anyone imagines anything being as big as shows like 'Cheers' or 'Friends.' It would be nice, but in my mind that's completely its own thing."
Watch Brewster in "Grandfathered" Tuesday nights on Fox at 8 p.m. EDT.
