Getting to know Greg Kinnear! 

By: Margarita Vryoni (Class of 2026) 

It’s not every day that a Hollywood movie celebrity visits a K-12 school, and it’s much more rare that this school is his own alma mater. It is a true honor to write about a beloved Hollywood actor, Greg Kinnear, who is an ACS Athens graduate of the Class of 1981. Mr. Kinnear, an Oscar-nominated actor, has many projects in his performing arts career; some of them include You’ve Got Mail, Little Miss Sunshine, As Good As It Gets, Friends, Modern Family, among many more! When meeting him when he visited our school last month, he urged us to really love the art and to enjoy every single moment we have, whether it is on a set in a movie lot or a theater stage.

His recent return to ACS Athens generated a lot of excitement among us students; we were eager to learn more about him and the advice he had to offer. Some lucky students and I joined Mr. Kinnear and got the opportunity to talk to him about what the performing arts world is. He offered advice on how to make it in the industry. 

He also explained the clear difference between starring in a movie and starring in a play; he said that in movies, you have more freedom to change the actions that a character performs. A simple example, he said, is holding a cup. On screen, that moment can change in an instant. The actor can toss the cup aside, spill what’s inside, or do something completely different, and the camera will capture it all. But in the theater, he explained, the moment works differently. The focus shifts to the character's inner life. If you’re holding a cup on stage, you don’t just hold it, you ask yourself why. Why does the character grip it tightly? Why do they cradle it gently? Why do they hesitate before lifting it? Every small movement becomes a window into the character’s thoughts.

Getting to meet someone who has distinguished himself in the performing arts industry really helped me understand the difference between the different types of performing arts, but also taught us to truly love what we want to do in the future, like he does!

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