that discipline and structure for you to feel safe,
Lady Bird
Greta Gerwig makes her directorial debut, casting Saoirse Ronan as the titular teen desperate to escape Sacramento
but also the love and belief to go out and do it on your own,” says Ronan. The actress had just come off of an emotionally draining run playing the vengeful witch-hunting bully in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible on Broadway eight times a week, and Gerwig intuitively understood what she needed before each scene, whether it was quiet or a note or music or just time to figure it out. “I desperately cared about getting this right, for both of us,” says Ronan, turning to Gerwig. “It’s your first film!” “I had such unshakable faith,” beams Gerwig. “I just knew. I did feel like a mom in that way of, ‘I’m not confused about this. You can be confused about it all day. I’m not.’” Gerwig infused her entire cast and crew with that same whole-hearted admiration, and in return, the set blossomed into a harmonious Hallmark family. “It’s not all like, ‘Kumbaya,’” laughs Gerwig. “Everyone’s working
ON LADY BIRD’S FIRST DAY OF FILMING,
Atonement at 13. But she had Gerwig’s diaries,
their ass off. But within that, there’s so much
Saoirse Ronan overheard a line that set the tone
which Gerwig had even kept hidden away from
mutual respect.”
of the whole shoot. Newbie director Greta Gerwig
herself while writing Lady Bird’s script. (“I tried to
bounced onto set, turned to the cinematogra-
rely on memory,” explains Gerwig. “You remember
An early flirting scene between Ronan and co-star
pher, and grinned, “This is the happiest I’ve ever
the emotion far more than you remember the
Lucas Hedges had to be shot on a high ledge so
been in my life.”
actual event, much in the same way you remem-
their legs would swing like kids. Sometimes, she’d
ber dreams.”) And more importantly, she had
direct in metaphors, conjuring up the bliss of an
sonal—though not, she stresses, autobiographi-
Gerwig’s trust. Two years ago at the Toronto Film
imaginary yogurt commercial and saying, “So
cal—story about a Sacramento-born blonde
Festival when Ronan was premiering Brooklyn, the
much of being alive is knowing that you’ll never get
(check) graduating high school shortly after 9/11
film that earned her a second Oscar nomination,
the yogurt moment.” A later scene where Ronan
(check) who squabbles with her mother, a nurse
Gerwig invited herself up to Ronan’s room to read
propositions her crush outside of a school dance
(check), and dreams of moving to Manhattan
her the finished screenplay.
wasn’t clicking until Gerwig and Ronan went for
Gerwig was in her hometown to shoot a per-
(check). Half-a-million people live in Sacra-
“I wrote a person I wasn’t sure existed,” says
For a first time filmmaker, Gerwig had a vision.
a walk. Suddenly, they realized the glitch. “We’d
mento, ten times the population of Ireland’s
Gerwig—a dreamy, moody, creative, confident,
been thinking about this all wrong,” said Gerwig.
County Carlow, where Ronan was raised, and
fragile, self-destructive, romantic, pretentious girl,
“You guys are still children. And you’re pretending
yet her return felt like a reunion. Growing up,
who throws herself from cars and shuns her birth
to be adults.” They tried the scene again and it
her friends shared the same doctor, the same
name, Christine—“and then she started to bring
worked. “As a director, taking a minute and figuring
dentist, and the same first job at an ice cream
her to life. Lady Bird was really this collaboration
that out was such a gratifying moment.”
store. When Gerwig mentions a former neighbor,
between the two of us. That character would not
Ronan beams, “I met Rose!”
be that character if not for her.”
No wonder Lady Bird calls Sacramento, “The
Still, Lady Bird isn’t one character—she’s
The opening scene where Ronan caps a fight with Metcalf by throwing herself from a car also just worked from the first take. It was towards the
Midwest of California.” Once, while the pair shot
dozens who shape-shift from scene to scene,
end of the shoot, and the fictional mother and
a quick scene outside a bank, a car pulled up and
depending on if she’s with her friends, her par-
daughter had been screaming at each other for
hollered, “My mom said to tell you to tell your mom
ents, her teachers, her first boyfriend, her second
weeks. Ronan calls Metcalf her “sparring partner”.
that she’ll see her at the med center!” Gerwig
boyfriend, or alone with herself, wondering who
For an hour, maybe two, they drove through
hadn’t seen the man behind the wheel in 16 years.
she wants to be. She shrinks around the rich kids
farmland near UC Davis and fed off the other’s
After she left home to become an indie film
at school, but clomps into drama club auditions
energy, and the backstory they’d already created.
like a show pony.
“Just from the first take, it felt like it had such a
actress, Gerwig occasionally gets stopped at coffee shops in New York, a modest level of fame that reminds her of home. “It feels like an exten-
“She’s a pretty great musical theater actor,” says Gerwig.
sion of being in Sacramento where everybody
Blurts Ronan, “Is she though?”
knows who you are,” says Gerwig. “I’ve recreated
Gerwig and Ronan are barely a decade apart
some level of community.”
foundation,” says Ronan. Gerwig agrees, with a shudder. “Even when I hear that scene now, I still get goosebumps.” As for the scene when Ronan loses her virginity
in age, but their dynamic toggles between best
to an indifferent Timothée Chalamet, the actress
friend and big sister. Gerwig affectionately calls
turns to Gerwig and giggles, “You found that really
past life. The young actress never experienced
her star “Surshe”. On set, however, Gerwig was
difficult. Timmy and I were fine.”
the ordinary, all-American teenagehood: prom,
mom. Not like Lady Bird’s fictional mother, played
college applications, parents anxiously filling out
by a phenomenal Laurie Metcalf, who wants so
“I became a dorky parent who needs to over-
financial aid, continuous panic to figure out who
much goodness for her child that she makes
explain everything!”
you are and who you should be.
them both miserable. More like the kind of mother
Ronan was literally stepping into her director’s
“I didn’t go through any of that,” admits Ronan. She’s been acting non-stop since she was 9 years old, and got her first Oscar nomination for
18
“I was a complete wreck!” Gerwig groans.
It’s Ronan’s turn to give assurance. “We had
who exists in the happy bedtime stories: positive,
you believing in everyone,” she says. “When you
supportive, kind.
know your parent loves you, you’re like, ‘I can do
“She’s like a really good parent who gives you
anything!’”
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
1213 - Cover Story - Women in Hollywood.indd 18
12/8/17 3:46 PM
