Greta Gerwig pauses to consider how to describe what directing feels like.
“But the person who has to push it forward at every step is you.”
She shakes her head and laughs.
“I say this, by the way, as someone who has run one marathon.”
It’s not just audiences who are swooning over Gerwig.
“Greta is fantastic.
“The vibe she set was supportive and collaborative and calm and easy and funny and stress-free.
I can’t think of an easier time that I’ve had working in film.”
But she’s had directing aspirations since the age of 5.
“I didn’t go to film school.
I really learned from watching people on sets,” she says.
“I’d ask them all: ‘What do you wish you’d known?’
Their answers were both general and specific.
Like, ‘Everyone is replaceable if they are hurting the film.’
First, because you usually have too many lights on.
And next, it gives you time to think about why you don’t like that frame.
that really only other directors know.”
“Nothing in the movie literally happened in my life, but it all rhymed with the truth.”
Tears were shed while shooting, too.
“It was the most weepy set I’ve ever encountered,” Gerwig says with a laugh.
“I’d weep after takes.
Part of your job is to be emotionally present for your actors.”
“I did put on a prom dress to direct the prom scenes,” she says.
All the time spent in between the camera rolling is still going into the film somehow.
Every time I talk about writing and art it sounds so hippie-dippy.
But the truth is, it is hippie-dippy.
It’s art!”
“If people love this movie, it’s because of the love that went into it.”
