Greta Gerwig
Tags: actress, actor, Whit Stillman, Damsels in Distress, Greta Gerwig, Arthur, Lola Versus
Indie film darling Greta Gerwig already has two movies out this year, one of them being Damsels in Distress, in which she starred. I actually got to meet her for that film when I was interviewing Whit Stillman. While they were paired, Sillman commented on her character in the Arthur remake, as an example of how studio movies give characters silly traits.
In Lola Versus Gerwig stars as Lola, a woman whose fiancé (Joel Kinnaman) cancels their wedding sending her on a spiral of casual sex, dating, drinking and disaster. This is not one of your Kate Hudson wedding movies.
The impressive credentials of Greta Gerwig include a magna cum laude honor from Barnard College. As an actor, she starred in notable indies like Hannah Takes the Stairs and The Duplass Brothers’ Baghead. Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg got her enough notice to land big Hollywood movies like No Strings Attached and Arthur.
Curled up in a hotel chair, Gerwig remembered me, since we’d only met two months prior. We sort of continued the conversation where Damsels in Distress left off. Durning our conversation, Gerwig got us thinking about how awesome it is to be bored, which was a most exciting and unexpected twist.
SuicideGirls: Are you concerned with the images of women movies put out?
Greta Gerwig: Meaning is it something I worry about?
SG:
When you’re taking movies and looking at other movies in the industry.
GG:
Well, I think we’re in the middle of a really exciting time for women in film. Largely it’s women generating parts for themselves. I think we’ve gotten a lot more interesting female characters within film and television. But I think typically when you’re given a script to read, the majority of scripts I read, women are ciphers. They’re not really full characters a lot of the time. That being said, neither are a lot of the men. I mean, truth be told, there’s just a lot of bad writing out there. There’s also a lot of good writing but of course everybody’s fighting to get the good writing. I’m on a long list of people but I do think about it. I’ve been very, very fortunate with it. I feel like I’ve looked for women who seem like they’re dynamic human beings in movies, and I’ve been lucky enough to play parts like that that seem like dynamic human beings who aren’t just a stand-in for a pretty girl or something.
SG:
Whit Stillman was amused that your character in Arthur gave tours of train stations. Did that seem far fetched to you?
GG:
She was a tour guide, yeah. I got the best e-mail that I’ve ever gotten from anyone from Whit after he saw Arthur. He said, “All the departments executed their jobs well and the projection was very good.” I said, “Thank you, Whit, for seeing the film.” Yeah, that seems slightly far fetched but I think Arthur is a fairy tale movie. It doesn’t exist in reality. I think it’s like an archetype. It’s a fairy tale of the prince and the pauper almost.
SG:
What was it about this perspective on marriage falling apart and women in relationships in Lola Versus that appealed to you?
GG:
Well, she’s the gal moving the story forward. She’s the one making all these mistakes. I really liked how big she messes up. She doesn’t mess up little. She messes up in this grand way and she really screws up her friendships and relationships and is selfish and not really thinking about other people. There was something exciting about that. It was just incredibly fun to do and I knew when I was reading it “This will be really fun to act and I can really get into this.” It was, I was right.
SG:
Lola is writing a dissertation on silence. Do you feel we have a fear of silence?
GG:
Yes, I do. I think we have a fear of silence and a fear of boredom which is maybe the same thing.
SG:
God, it shouldn’t be.
GG:
Silence and boredom? I think boredom’s great. I think boredom’s so useful. Raymond Chandler wrote about writing when he said that he would give himself four hours every day and he had to sit at his desk and he didn’t have to write but he couldn’t do anything else. Eventually you get bored enough you start writing. I think boredom covers up for something else. I think boredom covers up anxiety about being alone or being quiet and not having anything to fill your brain or your hands or your eyes or your ears with. I think that creates anxiety which we interpret to be boredom but is actually anxiety.
SG:
I would have thought boredom is something to be avoided but silence can be lovely.
GG:
I think boredom is to be embraced. I think boredom can create really wonderful things. I think there’s a lack of boredom in the world right now. I think there’s a total lack of boredom. If you’re on the train or on the bus in New York, everybody’s on their phones or on their tablets and they’re entertaining themselves to fucking death. It’s literally like a David Foster Wallace book. And I’m part of it too. I’m not better than it. I’m a human. Of course I love a screen that talks to me. It’s the best thing in the world. You don’t have to sit with yourself anymore. But I think it’s so dangerous. Those moments of boredom on a plane or at the doctor’s office don’t exist anymore and maybe good thinking got done then. Maybe nothing got done then but maybe something got done. I don't think we can really assess the loss of that.
SG:
They might be watching some of your movies on those phones and tablets.
GG:
I know, they might be. I might be feeding the beast. I probably am feeding the beast. I’m part of it. I’m part of the problem.
SG:
As someone who works as much as you do and develops your own projects, when do you get to be bored?
GG:
I’m bored all the time. It’s a weird combination because I try to stay off the internet and the television and the media enough that I can have time and space to think and work, but at the same time, I’m involved in making content so I can’t be totally removed from it. It’s a weird balance to strike. It’s somewhere in the middle but it’s very easy to get sucked into the internet as everybody knows.
SG:
That’s why I’m employed. I produce a lot of that.
GG:
I know, it’s great. I mean, it’s totally beguiling but it’s weird. I have Google Chrome and you can look at your search history. For me, looking at my search history it’s like you can see the machinations of your mind going, “Oh, I wonder if he made this movie with this person. Oh, then that led me over here. Then I wonder what is arsenic anyway?” It’s really indulging all these stone skipping thoughts but I don't know. Maybe I just have this reaction because I’m secretly addicted to the internet.
SG:
Well I learned something from one of your movies, also written by a woman, No Strings Attached. I learned about tea for your vag. I didn’t know that was a thing.
GG:
Yeah, that line made it in. I love Liz Meriwether. She’s hilarious. I love her show too, New Girl. I think she’s really funny and great. I hope I get to make another movie with her.
SG:
So tea for your vag is a thing and that helps women.
GG:
Tea for your vag, yeah, totally.
SG:
With all of the avenues available now in indie films, is it easier as an artist to reach an audience, via social media or these devices?
GG:
I don’t really use a lot of those. I don’t tweet. I don’t do that stuff but yeah, I think it is easier. I don't know that I’m taking advantage of it though but it is easier.
SG:
When you’re trying to raise financing, do these options, including VOD and downloading, help you get the money to make a movie?
GG:
I actually stay far away from those kinds of decision making moments because it’s thinks I have no real aptitude to think about. The VOD stuff or the different ways you’re going to raise money, I just want to make the movie. Then however it gets to people, I let that happen however it happens.
SG:
How have your educational studies of acting been important to your work?
GG:
I didn’t go to conservatory. I got to take from some amazing teachers who were actually teaching at Julliard but I was at Barnard College at Columbia and I majored in English and philosophy. I was doing a lot of theater and taking a lot of acting classes and I guess I’ve always seen it as filling my toolbox. I feel like it’s all kind of haphazard because I didn’t have a full on four year conservatory training program. But I think the benefit of it is I never lost how fun it is and I’ve never lost that feeling of it’s all play. It’s never felt like work or drudgery, writing and acting. It has always felt free and exciting and it makes me happy. I think part of that has been preserved because I didn’t overwork it.
SG:
Is it your type of music on the Lola Versus soundtrack?
GG:
No, my type of music, I like big ‘70s rock, I like Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music type stuff. I like Patti Smith. I like David Bowie. I like rock n’ roll. Lola Versus is in theaters June 8.
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