Last year, browsing Architectural Digest, Greta Lee came across a mention of a tiny house on a speck of an island along Croatia’s Dalmatian coast called Lopud: sun-drenched, tranquil, isolated. After a grueling five-month shoot for Tron: Ares, the new Disney blockbuster in which Lee has a starring role, she booked it for the following summer, hoping, somehow, the dates might work. Magically they did, and in July, after reaching the island via speedboat, she, her husband, and their two sons, ages six and nine, ascended the 160 steps to the house, which was surrounded by lush cypresses and citrus groves. At last, serenity. Seclusion. Anonymity. No call times, no reshoots, no meetings, no red carpets, no press—no Hollywood.
But then, shortly after Lee and her family settled in, the housekeeper casually mentioned that their neighbors on either side were none other than acclaimed filmmakers Ruben Östlund and Sean Baker.
“Nightmare!” Lee exclaims over lunch the following month. “I specifically sought out this place because of how remote it was. But I was then faced with this decision—am I going to go say hello?”
Well, did she? “Absolutely not! You choose that island precisely so that does not happen. In fact, I saw Ruben once—in my swimsuit—and literally turned and ran.” She chuckles at the memory. “It’ll be a funny story when I meet him.”
Which seems likely for this in-demand 42-year-old actor, who over the past two years has had no shortage of Hollywood experiences, observing them all with the bemused eye of someone who has encountered fame only after acting for nearly 20 years.
There’s also her talent for deadpan humor and sharp one-liners, skills she’s spent the past decade building a career on. Mostly she’s embodied varieties of 21st-century women in female-led comedies: the surly nail technician (Sisters), the woman who just can’t take a compliment (Inside Amy Schumer), the self-possessed art-world up-and-comer (Girls), the flamboyant downtown free spirit (Russian Doll), the unsettlingly youthful Upper East Side dermatologist (Broad City).
