Crazy Ex: Santino Fontana Reacts to Skylar Astin Replacing Him as Greg
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend alum Santino Fontana isn’t angry at the guy replacing him as Greg. (Although he could be, if he wanted to.)
In a new interview with Vulture, the former cast member reacted to the news that Pitch Perfect star Skylar Astin is taking over Fontana’s old role of surly bartender Greg Serrano in the upcoming fourth season of The CW‘s musical rom-com. And he’s got nothing against his replacement: “I love Skylar! He’s a buddy of mine.”
In fact, Fontana — who’s set to star in a new musical adaptation of Tootsie on Broadway next year — and Astin are already exchanging notes about the intricacies of playing Greg. “We’ve been texting, we’ve got a whole back-and-forth going,” Fontana reveals. “We’re brothers from the same mother. That’s what I’m calling it. Brothers from the same mother.”
Crazy Ex creators Rachel Bloom and Aline Brosh McKenna announced last month that Astin would be joining the cast in Season 4 (premiering on Friday, Oct. 12 at 9/8c) to play a “reimagined” version of Greg, who we last saw played by Fontana back in Season 2. And the show plans to fully lean into the fact that a clearly different actor is now playing the role: “It’ll be a great statement on how our perception of people changes,” Bloom teased.
Nice! I wonder if he’ll look different to everyone else as well
Yeah, but Skylar isn’t Greg! Unless the plotline is that Greg was being pursued by a drug cartel and had to have plastic surgery to change his appearance. Is the episode going to start with, “The role of Greg is now being played by Skylar Astin” like they do on soap operas? ;)
People facial features change over time, or weight gain or weight loss, or other “circumstances”.
I think what they’re planning is to say that everybody in the show used to see Greg in a certain way (i.e. as the “boy next door,” “settle for me” guy) but when he returns, he’s going to seem charming and handsome in a leading man way, almost as if he’s an entirely different person.
Basically, Rebecca and the others used to perceive him as a Santino Fontana-type, but suddenly he’s more of a Skylar Aston-type, and what we see as viewers changes to match that. It’s clever, and the show is just surreal enough already to pull it off.
Yeah yeah, my brain gets it, but my heart is going noooooooo……
Same for us (3 girls). We would so much love to see Santino back :'(
They could change Greg’s face AND keep the same actor. Don’t they know the program “face off” ?!
Bring back code black! Favourite and best show ever. Great acting. Love it.
Have no idea why this comment is here, but I think you’re going to be pleasantly surprised soon…
Probably what will happen is Rachel will write some amazing song for Rebecca to sing about how her former lover Greg has faded from her memory during which she’ll be holding Santino’s (Greg’s) photo. Slowly it will dissolve into a photo of Skylar.
I’m reassured that Santino is positive about it. The “that’s not what Greg looked like” shtick works even better if everyone else acts like nothing changed. We see the show from Rebecca’s perspective (remember the episode where Daryl was a broom with a mustache? A meta joke about budgeting the music videos then, but meta for other reasons now).
All this said, my hesitation is the chemistry and the crank charm Santino brought to Greg. Santino and Rachel had a lot of magnetism, and Santino knew how to play the “I hate myself and my life” vibe without being too wounded or pathetic.
And maybe opened the door for the change. Remember his dad said Greg is happy at school- was in love – Greg doesn’t hate himself or his life anymore. He is a different guy than the one Rebecca knew.
Don’t get me wrong – I love Santino and wish he was back. When I read Skylar Astin was taking over and was like “Whoop De Do!”
Now I’m intrigued at how they will handle it – I really hope they (at least Rebecca) address that he looks different if they do not I will be disappointed.
He does seem to excel in ‘that type’of role, which he had in both Crazy and Shades of Blue where his character made the mistake of crossing Ray Liotta and ended up face planted from way too far up. Will be curious how he does in Tootsie.
I love this idea if it was anyone else on the show, but I hated that “Greg” left the show in the first place, and this feels like such a tease that the character is back but not the great actor. I’m sure the new actor is great, but I really wanted Santino back on the show!
I didn’t want Greg to leave the show either. Although I supported that his character needed to leave town when he did and “move away” from the things that were holding him back from who he could be. However, I think that two seasons was too long for him to be away. They may not have realized when they created the character, but he was essentially the 4th leg in the table that made the show balanced (Rebecca/Josh/Paula/Greg). Firstly, he was Josh’s best friend – he was the person that Josh inadvertently compared himself to. Josh could always claim he was in a “better place than Greg”, so his life must be in an okay place. Secondly, for Rebecca he was the alternative to Josh, the person who she could have probably been very happy with if she could only have resolved some of her mental and emotional issues. A person who unexpectedly challenged and interested her, but was not even remotely who she thought she was supposed to be with. Leaving town was possibly the bravest thing Greg could have done, but it left a cavernous hole. In the short term that was a good thing – in a way. Josh and Rebecca were left to explore their ultimately doomed relationship, both coming to the conclusion that some dreams should probably stay that way as dreams. So where did that leave them? Rebecca tried to reach back to Greg, and thankfully for both of them did not manage to reconnect, because that forced Rebecca to confront her demons finally. But for Josh? Season 3 was a complete and utter waste. We barely saw the character at all, never mind make any noticeable character evolution. Instead we had waaaaay too much of secondary and tertiary characters – Darryl, Heather, White Josh, Hector, Valencia etc… Where they are serving Rebecca’s plot line I have no issues. And Rebecca’s journey, while I might not have chosen exactly the way it has played out has been an excellent journey. (I still hope Nathaniel is not end-game – we’ll see I guess). But wouldn’t it have been nice to just drop that whole baby story line? And instead a having Josh seek out Greg in New York realizing just how far his friend has come? That could have happened in the latter half of the season.
I’m not sure how Greg’s big return is going to be handled, but I have my thoughts. It is coming probably right at the right time for Rebecca, but for Josh and the show I feel it is at least half a season too late.