She not only acted in this movie, but also co-wrote it with partner Noah Baumbach. She really can do it all.ย
This isn’t Greta’s first movie with Noah, and that’s a great thing. The two are a very potent one-two punch, creating fun and interesting characters that are a joy to watch. Greta plays Brooke, a fun loving girl in her late twenties who takes her soon to be step sister Tracy, played by Lola Kirke, under her wing and shows her the city she loves.
Check our our roundtable interview below:
Talk about your character, I heard you say in interviews that she reminded you of characters from the 80s but I was thinking of Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffanyโs which you havenโt thought of at all. The second part is, is she a type or is she unique?
Greta Gerwig: Well I think, there were a lot of different influences we were looking at I mean particularly the movies of the more wild girls from the 80s, in the Melanie Griffiths and the Rosanna Arquettes, they were the type that would take a typically square, straight laced, uptown person and drag them into their crazy underworld and they were a bit dangerous, they seemed kind of living on the wrong side of the law. Then our other influences we were looking at were really screwball comedies, like Howard Hawks and George Cukor, of the 30s and 40s and Ernst Lubitsch and those were the ones we were thinking about. You know, I think we, I donโt know, we might have watched Breakfast at Tiffanyโs as an idea, but, I never loved Breakfast at Tiffanyโs only, I know thatโs like a sacrilege, but I think because it was such a stretch for me to see myself in Audrey Hepburn because she was so beautiful and elegant and brunette and European and I felt like I didnโt have any point of entry but there was something about the Melanie Griffith, even though I donโt feel like Iโm Melanie Griffith, there was some entry point of like her messiness and her wildness that I felt more connected to. I mean now that Iโm thinking about it, I think we probably did watch Breakfast at Tiffanyโs in anticipation of this, but, yea, I donโt see her as a type. I see her as a totally unique creation, but itโs definitely influenced by other things.
What happens with those characters when you take them and drop them into 2015?
Gerwig: Well I guess the movie we made is what happens! In a way I guess, both with the movie that I wrote with Noah before, Frances Ha, and with this movie, to me, Frances Ha felt like it belonged to the late 50s, early 60s, even though it was taking place in present day, similarly with this movie even though itโs present day, it, to me, doesnโt feel like a commentary on this time. Itโs not really our intention, itโs just, the truth is, itโs just very hard to set a movie in the 80s because you have to change all the cars. So, we couldnโt do that. So, itโs now, but really, the spirit of it is something earlier.
Can you describe the writing process?
Gerwig: Sure, well, we donโt sit together at a computer and write the dialogue together. We spend a lot of time talking about different entry points and reading books and watching films, and at some point we go off and start generating pages on our own which we then trade and heโll read mine, Iโll read his and weโll edit each other and then at a certain point we have enough stuff that we need to start cutting things down and directing things. Itโs kind of like jumping out of a plane and building your parachute on the way down. You donโt know exactly how itโs going to go but the closer the ground gets the more imperative it is you get that parachute built. Once weโre in it, it really feels like we see the same movie the whole time and that goes over into shooting. Thereโs never a time that I can think of when Iโve seen something one way and he sees it another way. Itโs like weโre both making the same piece.
The writing process and the shooting process was the same [as previous films], with no improvisation a lot of takes?
Gerwig: Yes we do no improvisation, we do a shit load of takes, excuse my French, and we really designed these movies so we can take a lot of time with them so we shot it over 60 days which is a very long time for, I mean, any movie. Especially about a movie where itโs mostly people talking in rooms. Itโs the way we love to work and I think it felt like after we made Frances Ha, it was such a success for us just in terms of the feeling of making it and we got to really hold ourselves to a high standard and not compromise anything that mattered to us, that we wanted to do it again even before we knew whether or not people enjoyed it. So we used a lot of the same crew and the same group to kind of get the band back together and make a second album.
How was it working with Lola Kirke?
Gerwig: Lola is the best. I love Lola! She auditioned, we auditioned a lot of people for the part of Tracy and the first time I saw her was on a tape I just saw her reading a scene and she has that deep voice, sheโs got a little bit of a lisp, and sheโs so beautiful but so unassuming and it just felt exactly right. But then, we made her audition like ten times because we need to feel like weโve done due diligence. Sheโs just funny and empathetic and open emotionally and sheโs just all around a huge talent and I think sheโs going to be a movie star.
When writing the script, did you and Noah argue about whether Brooke would be upset about having an article or story written about her?
Gerwig: We donโt really argue at any point in the process. We kind of have like a brain meld that happens, but I always knew that one of the things we were exploring in the movie was how writing is not a victimless activity. Unfortunately it affects the people that find their way into your work and itโs not that your intentions are bad but those people didnโt ask to be written about and itโs something that Iโve dealt with a lot and Noah has also dealt with and I donโt have any easy answers for it, but I knew I wanted to have this younger woman write something about her and then her be very upset about it. I think sheโs also upset about it because she putโs on such a show for Tracy, and Brooke puts on a show for everybody, sheโs a very performative person, because, sheโs got a lot to cover up. The bigger the front, the bigger the back. Sheโs very needy and insecure and scared and there are these little pin point moments of seeing something thatโs more delicate in her so of course when she reads a story where she feels like sheโs been seen, itโs incredibly traumatizing for her. I think itโs something I wanted to explore because I donโt think writers have an absolute right to do what they do and I think itโs not always a bright line of this is ok and this is not ok.
When theyโre at the house in Connecticut, Mamie-Claire has all those questions about women, and as I was watching it and laughing, I was wondering how much of that was a chuckle at critics?
Gerwig: I think sometimes when people have an emotional reaction to something they try to bolster it with more substantive claims about what it is theyโre upset about instead of just saying this hurt my feelings because Iโm me and I canโt believe you did this. They need to say and this has implications for everyone in the world! It was meant to be funny, but also I think itโs a behavior that people often exhibit when they feel pinned against a wall.
Mistress Americaย opens in select theaters August 14.
