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When Greta Gerwig is directing a film, each choice feels like the next move in a dance. When she falls out of step, she just has to find the dance again. Sam asks her about the art of directing, why attending Barnard College changed her life, and if she played with Barbies growing up.

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Transcript

SPEAKERS

Samantha Bee, Greta Gerwig

Samantha Bee  00:00

They know woman is expensive. And look, I know we’re worth it. But when you consider their for each dollar a white man makes on average, white when we get 83 cents, black woman 64 cents and Hispanic women 57 cents. The additional costs associated with being a woman. They add up fast, which is why I have some serious choice words for what is known as the pink tax. The pink tax refers to the additional cost associated with products that are exclusively targeted toward women from like tampons and pads to deodorant and shampoo, vitamins, pink pens, pink razors, really anything that is pink, an extra dollar, just an extra dollar here or there for products that are identical in purpose and design as those marketed to men except they are pink or they have the word woman attached to them. The federal government has never passed any laws that forbid pricing discrimination based on gender. Because, you know, I mean, of course, some states are getting rid of the pink tax like California, which passed, they passed a law like that back in way back in just earlier this year. And look, I’m not even really saying the tampons need to be free. Okay, well, yes. Okay, I actually am saying that. But I’m also just saying that women shouldn’t be penalized for daring to need them. Because in the same way that men need title as tats. Women need feminine products. It’s not a luxury item. It’s a health product. Do you want us to just free flow all over the subway? Do not answer that. Look, obviously, we should absolutely close the gender pay gap. I can’t believe I need to say that. But until that happens, and as women continue to be paid less than men, we’ll shouldn’t have to spend more of those unequal earnings on items that have become gendered solely because of consumerism and capitalism. I promise. There are plenty of ways of making us feel inferior. It’s just gonna take a little creativity. This is Choice Words. I’m Samantha Bee, and my guest today has become somewhat of a pink expert and caused an actual shortage of paint. Which makes me wonder if pink paint is taxed higher than blue paint. I digress. On this episode, I talked to the incredible actor, writer and director Greta Gerwig. Oh my gosh, I love a woman who can do it all. She’s been nominated for numerous Oscar and Golden Globe Awards for films like Lady Bird and Little Women. And this summer she’s giving us the highly anticipated film Barbie. So take a listen and make good choices.

Samantha Bee  04:39

Oh my god, I’m so excited to be talking to you right now.

Greta Gerwig  04:41

You too. I’m really sad. I wish we were in the same space.

Samantha Bee  04:47

I do too. I’m your this is a really big deal. I’m just a huge fan. I’m so excited to talk to you. Okay, thank you. Okay, okay. So this show, it’s all about like Choices, choices that you’ve made in your wife and I definitely want to talk about like big choices and big swings. But first, I kind of want to know, before we get started, when I say the word choice, it kind of means something different to everyone, are you? Are you good at making choices?

Greta Gerwig  05:13

I don’t like the feeling that I’m sort of it choosing something to the exclusion of other things. And I think I have a tendency to try to let the choice reveal itself. That’s a big thing that for me, because I feel like I can. And sometimes when I get panicked around, like, do I do this? Do I do that? I’m like, I need to kind of step back from it. And I’m, like, you know, which, like, you just have to get quiet enough, but to feel it, but when I’m in that thing of like, if I do this, and I’m not doing that, I don’t know. It feels like a kind of an amputation of a possibility in a way. So I like to feel like, as if I’m not choosing so much as just walking along the path that I’m meant to, which is probably it’s probably just an avoidance of responsibility.

Samantha Bee  06:12

Like, I understand that is like letting the letting the choice, like rise in your body in a way like letting it rise in your body.

Greta Gerwig  06:19

Yes, you know, there’s I’m an mangle this, but I am interested in. I like Quakers. I am not. Oh, but do you know this concept?

Samantha Bee  06:30

Yes. Yes. I love Quakers. I love the idea of Quaker dome.

Greta Gerwig  06:35

Yes, um, there’s a Quaker theologian, I guess it’s sort of the term even though they don’t have anything specific that you sort of have to believe in. They don’t have a creed the way other Christian sects have creeds, but they, um, I think his name is Parker, I’ll find his name. But he wrote really beautifully about this idea in Quaker tradition is you get quiet with yourself. That’s the whole thing. And then you kind of like listen, and maybe Maybe God says something, maybe not. But with choosing, they have a phrase it says way will open to you, ah, that you’re looking for a way to open and way can also close behind you. And you can feel way closed behind you or way open in front of you. And I think that’s actually stuck with me as an idea that I thought was really beautiful, like, you can just know, and anyway, I My apologies to any of your listeners who are Quaker. I don’t really know. The Quaker traditions. I’m, I’m a sort of a fan and a bystander, but yeah, I’ve I remember being very taken with that idea.

Samantha Bee  07:51

I’m sure that I’ve offended all Quakers by being like, I love Quakers. I love it. What do you do love those like empty rooms where everybody just sits quietly and they only speak if they have something to say no, really. I know you appreciate that deep me too.

Greta Gerwig  08:11

I actually I’ve gone to a few Quaker meetings in my day, and I think they’re it’s a very beautiful tradition. I feel like I like showbiz too much for it. Like I’ve always liked that I’ve been sort of the theatricality of the Catholic Church has always been like, but the house like looks like it was so fun. And I was like the Quaker thing feels like the thing I want to aspire to. But I like I like the hats of the Catholics. I like the songs of the Protestants. I like the students. austere pneus of the Quakers.

Samantha Bee  08:49

Yes, the austerity is like a very moving, but I do I’m a I’m a little bit with you. I’m like the where does the pope get his red shoes? Paris custom made it’s so and there’s so much blood.

Greta Gerwig  09:02

One step away from the Broadway stage.

Samantha Bee  09:06

I need a little razzle dazzle. Okay. Do you? Well, okay, let me ask you this then is so then when you’re directing, you literally are forced to make choices. On a split second. You are forced into that position where you’re just constantly like rebuffing. You’re finding things that work in the moment. Was that comfortable for you right away? Or did you have to kind of figure out how to decision makes so quickly?

Greta Gerwig  09:34

Yes. Well, I think again, if you think about it as having to make a million decisions a day, which is what it is, but if you think about it that way, it can be quite paralyzing. But if you think about, again, to sell sounds really mystical. But I can’t believe movies want to be something like that they want it’s sort of like listen to the movie. What is the movie want to be like with your collaborators? Isn’t everything it’s like you’re all kind of listening to the movie and trying to figure out what it’s saying to you. And I always experience as a director when you’re sort of in the zone. It’s like, this sounds like so silly, but like, you know, did you ever see that movie? The Edge of Tomorrow?  That’s such a it’s so great. And, you know, the, so Tom Cruise like, tries to get through this battlefield, it’s impossible. But like, once he’s, he figures it out over time. And it’s like a ballet, it’s like everything, like, this guy is going to come here. And this person is over here. And I’m going to know and in this thing, it’s, um, when I’m sort of in the zone with directing. I feel like Tom Cruise, Tom Cruise, writing the alien invaders all the way through, because I’m just like, and this is coming here. And it’s almost like I know the dance. And it’s sometimes the moments that are scary is when you feel like you get out of sync with the dance. And you think, oh, no, and then you become aware of like, what’s the next move and you’re like, find the dance again, find the dance again. And it takes a lot of trial and error to find the dance. But when you’re in it, it’s like the it’s a pretty addicting feeling.

Samantha Bee  11:22

The choreography like.

Greta Gerwig  11:24

I’ve just like, like, it’s like, you know, someone comes up, and they’re like, is it a blue hat or green hat green? I’m certain of it this way, you know, like, it just, it feels like a like, you just owe the answer. And it’s, it’s yes, it’s very wonderful.

Samantha Bee  11:40

So you’re like always moving toward your keep the thrust of the movie, you’re always moving in the direction of the thrust that year?

Greta Gerwig  11:48

Yes, exactly. Actually, what Like Ryan said to me, because Ryan Gosling said to me, we were doing something, just bananas, as many of the things we do in this movie is bananas are bananas. And he came up to me afterwards, and he said, you really hear the song in your heart clearly. I do. You’re right. I do. Like I don’t always feel that way. But like, right now with this one, I do I hear the song in my heart clearly, and but then like, at the end of the day, when you’re like driving home, sometimes you do have like, what did I do? Like? Because you are because then you’re like, I made all these choices. I want to undo them.

Samantha Bee  12:28

Can we go back and just redo everything. And that’s such a compliment that you have the song in your heart?

Greta Gerwig  12:34

I know. I know. That was like one of the best things that I’m repeating a compliment said to me.

Samantha Bee  12:40

Honestly, I would get it embroidered on a pillow. Yeah, that’s pretty nice. That’s pretty nice. So what do you have to ask you? What is the choice that you feel like even if it was a small choice that you made, even when you were younger? I don’t know what is something that you think reverberated in your life and really made a difference in your life?

Greta Gerwig  13:00

Well, I, the thing I go to right away, that is not a small choice. It’s a big choice, but and the choice was more, again, a collection of accidents that like then became a choice. But I’m going to Barnard College was a that was one of the biggest like, if that kind of setup a bunch of other things from there. But the reason I went to Barnard College was also I mean, I went to New York City when I was in high school because I wanted to go I wanted to be in the musical theater program at NYU, which I did not get into, but I did audition for it. And I auditioned for Juilliard, which I also did not get in. And my dad was like, Well, we’re here. Why don’t we go look at Columbia. I was like, I didn’t want to look at Colombia. But okay. And then we took the train up and watch our Colombia. And he was like, no, why don’t we go look at Barnard. And actually, I just stepped off campus. And I just thought, oh, I want to be all of these women. I like it was like it’s instant feeling of like, I love these women. They’re great. And then this very strange thing happened where there was like a cancellation for an interview. And they interviews in person interviews booked up really early. Yeah. And it was an interview with a woman who had gone to Barnard and was working in the admissions department. And she had been an opera singer and a math major. That was like, the coolest person I’ve ever met.

Samantha Bee  14:36

Opera singer and a math major. All right.

Greta Gerwig  14:40

And it was just like, what were all these interesting girls and so and it was like, too late to apply early decision because I didn’t know about the school really. And then, um, but I wrote on my application, like, if I don’t get into Barnard College, just I keep this application because all apply as a transfer. And then I got in and I and I, and I got a scholarship and I and I went and it was life changing. I mean, that was like life changing completely. Like, I, you know, I can’t I don’t think I would write if I hadn’t done that.

Samantha Bee  15:19

Did you feel like it was like coming home like you felt? So you were like, Oh, this is my, this is my place. These are my people. I’m so lucky. I found it young.

Greta Gerwig  15:27

Yes, I did. And I also felt like the professors I met there, the teachers, I met the students. It was like, all of these things. How to place like, I didn’t really I was writing in when I was younger, and when I was in high school, but I didn’t really even know that you could. You could be I don’t know, writing was sort of like, I just always assumed someone much smarter than me was doing was like, I wanted to be playwright and but I was like, I can’t do that. And it was, you know, the people I met there that kind of said, well, yes, you can you just have to work at it and try. And it’s like the there was some it was like things that seemed impossible to me. It’s more possible.

Samantha Bee  16:16

Don’t you think it’s so interesting, like when you have a whole you’ve set up a whole story in your own head. And then somebody literally needs to say to you, and it can’t be your parents. It has to be someone in the outside world who says well, why wouldn’t it be you? Like why not you?

Greta Gerwig  16:29

Yeah, I know. And it’s really simple. And somebody just needs to like, it’s almost like a breaking a spell. Right? You’re in a some spell that you weren’t even aware of. And then they kind of tilt you the way and you’re like, what?

Samantha Bee  16:46

Other people do it too. Like it’s like a job. You could do.

Greta Gerwig  16:49

Yes, but I guess I feel like in a way like that. That was a choice. But I guess sometimes when I think of choice, I think of like, shall I do this or shall I do that? Right? And I guess for me, it’s like, I chose it but I really.

Samantha Bee  17:05

We chose you. You chose each other.

Greta Gerwig  17:35

You know, way opened in front of me.

Samantha Bee  19:31

We’ll be right back with Greta Gerwig after this. Do you ever I mean, you’re a director, you’re an actor, you’re a writer, you’re a producer? How do you decide? Like when you’re writing something? Aren’t you like I should be in this? Or how do you decide which role you want to play in a project.

Greta Gerwig  21:13

I I never acted in anything I’ve directed, which I think I will continue with I don’t really have any interest. I’m amazed by people who can act and things that they’ve they’re directing, because I don’t really have any ability to cross those like i i Can I act and things that I’ve written that someone else is directing, but I cannot act and things that I have, that I’m directing. They occupy really different parts of my brain. And I don’t know how I’d be able to do both at once, I think I think you have to be able to hold two consciousnesses in your head. At the same time to be able to do I think you have to be able to see yourself from the outside and also experience it from the inside. If you’re going to act on something you’re directing. And I just don’t have that kind of ability to separate or compartmentalize it I have to be in one or the other.

Samantha Bee  22:06

And do you have rules for your sets? When you’re directing? What kind of environment do you like to set? What does a Greta Gerwig set feel? Like? Is that a crazy question?

Greta Gerwig  22:18

No, no, not at all. Um, I think because probably because I started off loving theater. I think in in movies, it’s often hard, harder to get a sense of like a like a troupe of people. And I like that a lot. And I think I as far as I can. I like to create a sense of like a theatre troupe or a group that’s making this together. And I think that’s, you know, that’s what I like, it’s what I love. It’s the thing that I was attracted to me about working with actors and designers. And you know, and cinematographer is, this is sort of like all hands on deck all the time. And I think sometimes in movies, there’s a sense of, Well, you’re not called to set until it’s your time and then actors are in isolation from each other in their trailers. And so I like to I like to have rehearsal time ahead of time to kind of create that sense of community. I like to any way I can do things that are physical that take you up out of your own head that makes everybody feel so like the on Barbie we did. We all did dance warm ups together as a group, like even the the, you know, the dolly grip would do the dance warm up, and the sound mixer and the actors and the dancers and me. And it was like, This is not an individual endeavor. And I think that that, that that’s what I I tried to create as much as possible. And it’s really amazing. Like, like on this movie, people were giving when they when they were doing sort of off camera work. And people were still giving just 150% these incredible performances that I’m not even capturing, which is slightly frustrating, because I’m like, it’s so great. But it’s also this thing of everyone is like in this imaginary world together. And that’s what I like to create.

Samantha Bee  24:22

Oh my god, I love that idea. So much of creating, because it’s Yeah, filmmaking can feel like everybody’s totally siloed. And what if your dolly grip was the best answer of all.

Greta Gerwig  24:34

He was actually did have the most beautiful voice. Yes, he did. He’s Welsh and he had the most end he was like, Oh, well, Welshman can sing. I was like, me, but not that. And he’s like, Well, yes, me and my brothers. We all can do in harmony. And I was like, this is extraordinary. It’s great.

Samantha Bee  24:55

I literally cannot wait to see this movie because and I’m sure that you’re going Agnes from so many people that you’re talking to you because Barbie is so important to so many people. I mean, people must be coming up to you and they want to tell you all about their Barbies. Are you experiencing that?

Greta Gerwig  25:14

Yes. Yes. And also just people kind of nobody doesn’t have an opinion on Barbie, which is also another fascinating thing and then she’s she’s an icon she’s known all over the world and nobody, nobody doesn’t have some some kind of way they’re feeling about Barbie, which is a sort of terrifying but exciting thing to step into.

Samantha Bee  25:46

Did you have Barbies growing up?

Greta Gerwig  25:49

Well, I did have Barbies. But I had a mom who was not crazy about Barbie, you know, for all the reasons that a mom would not be crazy about Barbie. But there were so many kids in my neighborhood who had Barbies, and they would play with Barbies. And I would get hammered down Barbies that had been pre loved and like didn’t have shoes and have archives, but I loved them. And then I like the sort of triumph of all triumphs was like, I got a dream house from somewhere like, yeah, they’re amazing. And eventually, my mom did. I did eventually get like my own pristine Barbie in a box. But it was, you know, I think it only added to the alert for me that it was slightly forbidden.

Samantha Bee  26:33

My mother did not like my Barbies also, and she definitely had a lot of opinions about them. And she was like, these are not feminist. And I was like, I, you’re right, but they enacted feminist scenarios. So I feel great about it.

Greta Gerwig  26:48

Do you regret about it? Yeah. No, my mom was very like, I remember we went to Paris, I must have been six. Anyway, we went to Versailles. And I was allowed to get a doll. And I and I really wanted the Marie Antoinette doll because I thought she looked beautiful. Because she’s wearing like, good, bad, great hair and everything. And my mom was like, you can’t you have to get the French revolutionary dolls. And I was like, No, I don’t want them. And then she was like, you can’t get the monarchy doll. You’re just not allowed to get these people who are fighting for representative democracy. Okay, but do they have that hair though?

Samantha Bee  27:33

Can I do their hair? Do you think there are ways to get more women to choose to direct film? I mean, it’s, I feel like it makes such a difference.

Greta Gerwig  27:50

I think it’s happening. I think it’s happening. I mean, I think about it all the time. Because well, we’re just saying like, I live in New York as well. And I live like, right by NYU new school. There’s so many really fired up really sweet young girls who have just started film school where like, I can like hear them debating stuff on the street. And it just just, you know, it’s amazing. And they’re like, I would have done it this way. And it’s just like, it’s the best, you know, I don’t know, it’s sort of super opinionated, ready, ready to rumble girls. And I think it’s happening. And I think it’s been a slow, slow change in the history of film, but it feels like if I, from my perspective, it feels like it’s kind of increasing exponentially, right? I mean, in terms of just sort of tidal wave that I think is coming, I think it’s probably about I put it like 10 years away. Because it’s, I can feel it almost coming from behind. Like it’s it’s exciting. But it’s it’s those things take a while to sort of move through. Yeah, because you kind of need the next generation to come up and be like.

Samantha Bee  29:11

I see it like in my own in my own daughter’s shoe. They have just they don’t accept each iteration of like, young womanhood is less accepting. Yes. Of all the kind of shit that came before them. Yeah. And they are so creative and forceful.

Greta Gerwig  29:29

Yes, that is what’s exciting about you know, being I’m going to be 40 in August. And you know, that sense of feeling like I’m still learning from the generation that came before me and then I feel like the young people are coming up behind telling me the news it like, like, whoa, like I feel, you know, time is stretching behind me and in front of me.

Samantha Bee  29:57

The way opens before you but it went really good.

Greta Gerwig  30:00

I think his name is Parker Palmer. Okay, I could be wrong but you can look this up. I’m gonna look it up. He’s a very wonderful writer and really, Quaker stuff is spot on.

Samantha Bee  30:12

We’ll be right back with Greta Gerwig after this. Is there a way that you choose your projects now? How do you decide what you want to make?

Greta Gerwig  32:40

Yeah, well, again, this is, I mean, with Barbie, I will say that was something that, you know, I liked Margot Robbie so much as an actor, and I thought she was what she was doing as a producer was so wonderful. And we’d actually met and talked and I was super impressed by her because she’s like, she’s like a nitty gritty, UPM type producer, she knows that she’s like, the hot costs of the trucks and where the park get, and I’m like, Oh, you’re really, you’re involved with how we put together movies on a really granular level. Um, she came to me and said, I, I have this IP of Barbie and my company hasn’t we’re setting it up and it’s at Warner Brothers. And do you want to write it? I just it. I think, again, to go to choices. It doesn’t. It wasn’t like, I shall accept it. You know, it was, it was more like, it was like, oh, that’s slightly terrifying. I love you. I’m interested in making something like that. And then I said, and my partner in life and art know about back and I was like, yeah, and no one wants to write it too. And then Noah was like, How come you signed me up to write a Barbie? That was like, because I think we can figure it out. Right? And then it wasn’t really until we’d written the script. And then I loved the script that I thought it would really break my heart if anybody else directed it. So I want to direct it, you know, but I think it’s it was less like this kind of knowing what it was going to be or knowing even that I was going to direct it and more just that sense of like, I think that’s sticky. Somehow.

Samantha Bee  34:28

Sticky, right? Like if you walked away from it, like if you were like hard. No, you’d be like, Oh, it’s haunting me. Mm hmm. maybe now’s not, it’s not quite the right decision to say no, it’s not like a full hearted. Yes.

Greta Gerwig  34:44

Right. Well, it’s almost like you know, I mean, I have two children and a stepson, and they love them so much and but like, it’s not like when you go on a date with someone you’re like, I accept your children. Like, but like at the end Don’t you kind of get there? You know? And then and then you’re like, but I kind of always did, though, you know? I think the decision comes to me in feeling like your compass has a true north, right and then trying to kind of stick to that. And that feels like the kind of like, where am I going and then sort of trying to attack in that direction. I suppose.

Samantha Bee  35:29

You collaborate a lot with your partner, Noah Baumbach, I collaborate with my husband, too. We met doing children’s theater, that’s nice, very such dignity and two adults doing children’s theater, and you collaborate with your partner, what does that look like?

Greta Gerwig  35:47

Well, we always say that the things that we’ve made together, there always feels like it’s not like half me half Noah, it feels like there’s a third thing that is able to exist between the two of us that we only have access when we’re both there, to this third thing. And I feel very connected to because it feels like when he’s there, we’re able to find the thing that we know have always been going for all along. And I’m like, it’s almost like you have half of a joke or something when you’re alone. And then he walks in. He’s like, That’s the here’s the other half and you’re like, but he doesn’t know the other half until he walks in. Does that make sense?

Samantha Bee  36:30

That makes total sense. There’s a vision. There’s like a shared vision. Yeah. And your age kind of getting you just everybody’s moving toward the vision.

Greta Gerwig  36:40

Exactly. There’s that’s why people are always like, Oh, do you guys disagree? And I’m like, No, not really not like the way you mean, think? Because we know we both know what the thing is.

Samantha Bee  36:53

I like that. It’s like a family business. You’re like the Von Trapp Family Singers. And everybody’s moving toward make the song sound perfect.

Greta Gerwig  37:00

You know, let’s hope not location.

Samantha Bee  37:04

Not the same moment in history. Do you enjoy editing? Do you enjoy that process?

Greta Gerwig  37:11

Yeah, I do. I love editing. I mean, I think this is from like, K do cinema or like Eisenstein writing about movies and cinema. It’s like, the essence of cinema is the cut. That is what cinema is. It’s like, how do you place images together that create meaning? And I think that sort of like, oh, this is actually where it becomes cinema, not just footage, you know, is in the cut? Where are you choosing the cut? And, you know, I will say speaking of choices, that’s 10 You’re making a lot of choices also, because every cut, and then it’s so funny because you know, actors are so trusting in terms of they are really vulnerable and do lots of strange things and will really can kind of take a poor performance into some ticket really far out and then bring it in. And at the beginning, it just kind of you have to find it all again, you have to figure out like what what was the thing? And it could go this way? Could that go that way? And, and it’s funny, because obviously with this movie, I am very close to the editing and the finishing process. And towards the end of editing, you’re always opens up a scene or something and you’re like, well, let’s just look at the stack takes and see other ways they did it. And it was it’s almost like when you do it again, just to make sure like did we Is this the right one that we picked the best one was there a different one? And then you just see these other people that this movie isn’t? Doesn’t. It’s not it and you’re like, Oh, that’s so strange that this was ever in there because now I can only it’s this one, you know, I’ve I don’t think I’ve very often open something up and picked something different. Not towards the end. It just is like, Oh no, this was what it should be.

Samantha Bee  39:03

Oh, that’s amazing. So it’s a very like it’s like a an organic. It’s a big process pulling all that footage together. But it’s also sounds like it’s like, kind of organic to you.

Greta Gerwig  39:15

it is. But it’s yeah, it’s the thing that is nice about editing. There’s a million different permutations of how it could be. There is a sort of, you know, you got to dance with the date that brung you like this footage. Like you have the movie you wanted to make. This is the movie you have. What’s this movie? And you have to be very honest with yourself about what it is because it probably transformed somewhat while you were making it into something away from what you initially thought and you have to say like okay, well what’s here though, like it’s Don’t Don’t mourn the movie that doesn’t that what that wasn’t, this is now the movie that is.

Samantha Bee  40:01

When did you first see that? Like when you? I’m gonna use the example of Lady Bird, which I loved. When you direct a ladybird? Did you bring all the footage together and go, Oh my god, like, wait a second, this is so it’s so different. But I love it. What is that?

Greta Gerwig  40:20

Yeah, well, it’s that happens. I, I mean, it happened initially, I would say with Lady Bird on the wall just being on set, because all of a sudden, it’s been embodied by people who are there better than what was in your head, but they’re also different than what was in your head. And so, so you’re kind of so that process and then with the footage, and then when you’re cutting it, it’s some funky combination of its, there is an essence that what was in your head in your heart, and then it’s also so different. Like, for every movie, for every scene, for every, everything, I feel like the movie I came to is the movie that wanted to be, but somewhere in the back of my head, I know that there’s another there’s another way it could have been. But this is the this is the honest version of what it wanted to be and what it what it sort of emerged as. And also, you know, I mean, also simple things like, you can have written a scene in a particular way or shot it in a particular way. And then when you put all those images up together, you suddenly are like, Oh, I see, we don’t need any of these lines, that person’s face tells the story. Actually, the focus is here, like you have to, like you start seeing it differently. And I do find that, you know, from whatever the, you know, film acting, the art of film acting. There are just sometimes you think you know what you got, and then you look at the footage, and then you’re like, Oh, my God, they were doing something totally did I didn’t see at the moment. And now I see it.

Samantha Bee  42:03

First of all, before I let go, I want to say that I’m so excited to see what you got. I’m just so excited as a bar, I can’t even handle it. And I’m like, I’m going to ask you my my last question to you is like, do you turn to cinema to fill yourself creatively? What’s the last great thing you saw?

Greta Gerwig  42:23

Well, because I have a four month old, baby. I feel like I’m a little Okay. lacks on an on an immediate new things because I just like leaving the house is like a whole leg.

Samantha Bee  42:38

Oh, you know, four month old baby, I retract my question. There’s no cinema at all.

Greta Gerwig  42:45

No, it’s like you’re walking out the door and you’re like he’s asleep. It’s okay. And then you hear like, and you’re like, oh, he has.

Samantha Bee  42:52

For a long time, then it’s just all paragraphs and short stories. All you can read are like short magazine articles. Actually, there.

Greta Gerwig  43:00

I read, you know, Alice Monroe, the short story writer. I read some news, the Paris Review interview with her and somebody was asking her about short stories. I can be getting this all wrong. But this is a version of what she said. She was like, I had six kids. That was all I could write. The luxury of like, all this time, like once asleep once at the library. I can like, start like short stories were the thing I could do, given the fact that I had so many children. And I was like, That’s correct. Yeah, correct. But I feel like there’s a thing that I know is out right now, which I’ve made a date to see. Oh, with myself. The movie that’s out. Right now in past lives. I know that will be an encounter. So I’m really excited. I’m really excited to see that in the movie theater. I feel like everything I see is just in pieces right now. And I feel like for me and experience of cinema is really going to a movie theater.

Samantha Bee  44:06

You know, as well. When you go to that movie theater, and those lights go down, I wish you the greatest encounter. I hope you get lost in that piece of cinema.

Greta Gerwig  44:17

I think I will. I think I’ve chosen a good one. I think past lives is a good one to do it with. It’s a good one. Yeah, well, let’s start lactating. Oh, great. I’ll be like, oh, no.

Samantha Bee  44:29

Why is this happening to me? Oh, my antibody. Thank you so much for talking to me. And I just loved every second of it.

Greta Gerwig  44:39

Thank you and I’m maybe i’ll see you quick.

Samantha Bee  44:45

We’ll have to be quiet.  That was Greta Gerwig. And I had no choice but to Google one thing after that conversation, I love the idea she was talking about of way we’ll open. I could not find one specific person who wanted to take credit for that. But Parker Palmer, who she mentioned, said that when weight closes, way will open, which I love. Maybe Greta and I should go to Quaker meetings together. I wonder what type of snacks they have. Anyway, thank you to Greta for coming on. Good news. There’s more choice words with Lemonada Premium. Subscribers get exclusive access to bonus content like a rapid fire round of trivia questions based off my recent interview with Judy Blume. Subscribe now in Apple podcasts.

CREDITS  46:03

Thank you for listening to choice words which was created by and is hosted by me. We’re a production of Lebanon of Thank you for listening to Choice Words which was created by and is hosted by me. We’re a production of Lemonada Media, Kathyrn Barnes, […] and Kryssy Pease produce our show. Our mix is by James Barber. Steve Nelson is the vice president of weekly content. Jessica Cordova Kramer, Stephanie Wittles Wachs and I are executive producers. Our theme was composed by […] with help from Johnny Vince Evans . Special thanks to Kristen Everman, Claire Jones, Ivan Kuraev and Rachel Neil. You can find me at @Iamsambee on Twitter and at @realsambee on Instagram. Follow Choice Words wherever you get your podcasts or listen ad free on Amazon music with your Prime membership.