Greta Gerwig Likes Writing that Doesn't Look Like Writing

[@emmadebruyn295]

I’ve read the script of Lady Bird, it’s amazing. It’s intelligent and so smart. It’s not like I’m reading a script but like I’m reading her mind while she’s thinking about how she wants the movie. She’s so smart and underrated. I love Greta, she amazing.

[@rosie2341]

where can i find it

[@emmadebruyn295]

@@rosie2341 I might have a link somewhere, I’ll look and let you know.

[@emmadebruyn295]

@@rosie2341 www.dailyscript.com/scripts/LADY_BIRD_shooting_script.pdf Here you go!

[@serene9532]

@@emmadebruyn295 id love to read it too :)

[@lilmilontiktok]

@@rosie2341just look up lady bird script

[@savedfaves]

I agree with her. Dialogue that doesn't sound like writing is 1. so hard to do, and 2. so satisfying to experience from an audience perspective. Some of Woody Allen's comedies I find too written sounding-like everyone has too many good lines after one another in a complete unrealistic way

[@JorgeSilva-qh3jy]

This really connects with what was discussed with Andrew Garfield ("Andrew Garfield Reflects on Celebrity Culture"). In a play, to the audience, the actors are mere interpreters of what was typewritten, they act according to the guides and maybe, like Greta Gerwig said, sometimes you'd "think this people were making it up, on the spot". Human people with human traits, be it qualities or flaws. While in a movie, that which contributes to the "exaltation" of actors (and famous people, in general) is exactly because viewers don't see the events folding in front of them, but through a screen (home or one at the cinema), and again, like Greta Gerwig so neatly put it, "because people know that the filmmakers have watched this a million times, they've cut it, chosen where the editing points are, so this can't really be a mistake". So, "apparently", that are/were no improv moments. And this leads to mentally placing a cinema actor, as the character, with the same personality, quirks and life experiences. And a theater actor, as a normal human being, portraying someone on that specific moment, that specific play. Awesome "off-camera" talk(s) :)

[@Elizabeth-ld3jn]

i really reccomend u read "art in the age of mechanical reproduction" by walter benjamin. it grapples what you mentioned - the differences between theatre and cinema and the response that the audience has to each art form - from a philosophical pov. hope u may find it interesting!

[@emmacoates2411]

She pleasantly surprised me here. She has a very unique perspective that I never appreciated about her until now.

[@megamoviez]

I'm a new writer and director developing my own short films so this was really good to know

[@stefcisne]

god i absolutely adore her and francs ha is one of my absolute favorite films i love it love it

[@Panquernic]

I feel like I can see the color of her eyes even tho it's b&w. It's strange

[@doordonut5427]

What color?

[@Panquernic]

Totalart Hazel maybe, a clear brownish

[@MindWaveStudiosLtd]

@@Panquernic yes I see Hazel too :)

[@TrangThu-hb9iy]

What have you done to me

[@ryanhinderliter6206]

Coming here from Hannah Takes the Stairs. Its surprising to hear her say she refrains from improv dialogue now adays considering she wrote screenplays and acted in movies while using that style for so long. I wonder what her writing process is like now. In Lady Bird she was able to capture the idiosyncratic moments in everyday life. And the improvised dialogue is meant to capture those moments. I feel like she got so good at improv dialogue she could write it.

[@matthewsawczyn6592]

Reminds me of how David Mamet writes in all the "ums" and "ahs", and you WILL READ IT AS WRITTEN

[@ninabienportada]

he's so charmed by her and i am too

[@megamoviez]

This woman is such an inspiration!

[@shannoncurry2037]

I'm wanting to become a film director and I don't want my films to be pitch perfect just a little off to make it seem more real

[@Theimmortalmisfit]

this is definitely reflected in ladybird

[@stevegrooms1142]

Sam Jones is an outstanding interviewer. What keeps surprising me as I watch his videos is how beautiful the women are whom he interviews. Is there something about the lighting or makeup? It's just another reason to watch these videos.

[@likearollingstone007]

In black & white.

[@mrsfanni]

who is she talking about in min 0:58? can't understand the name, but would really interest me to look that person up. thank you!

[@Jiang-]

Kenneth Lonergan the playwright/movie writer-director

[@mrsfanni]

thank you!

[@StephanieTips]

watch Manchester by the sea by him.. amazing!

[@jacobdavis3876]

Manchester by the Sea was shit... Messy as all hell. Lady Bird was infinitely better, and I am genuinely shocked that Gerwig finds a hack (I've only seen Manchester) like Lonergan believable in what he writers, let alone influential. :(

[@puneethwrites]

Jacob Davis Lonergan’s writing is lucid and visceral. They read like a Novel. I think Gerwig is particularly talking about the way he writes.

[@TheJcg14]

That’s funny because she said in other interview she hates when actors go off script, and adlibbi h would be talking that isn’t writing

[@roxknocks]

I want to be her

[@chriscorley6478]

Cool hairstyle.

[@LiterarySahitya]

the mistake part, in Plays & Movies; Genius observation.

[@samuelalemayhu8116]

very interesting points made by Greta

[@Ben-ut1xb]

Hell yeah

[@jeffb587]

just had to let you guys know I read Lonergan before MbtS... just playin, Greta. Love you!

[@candegelabert6631]

Here because of bears in trees

[@MANZANOADRIAN]

Doesn't she know that mike Leigh uses improv with actors to write?

[@basehead617]

I think that's what she was referring to. Improving to get 'the script', then sticking with it. That's different than improving various takes and choosing pieces from the improv to edit.

[@doublerainbowtesseract7569]

same

[@Anna30997]

1:44 is the play called "Ecstasy"? Anybody knows who's the author?

[@hattie2000]

Yes, it's by Mike Leigh

[@Anna30997]

Hattie thank you!

[@collagesandmore8986]

I do believe in improve.

[@eloyramirez7654]

She also likes writing that doesn’t involve POC

[@Khushi-Shah]

I don't think she's actively not including poc, but rather she's just writing what she knows, stories that are familiar to her point of view.

[@SkeletonCreeper03]

@@Khushi-Shah yea the films that she’s written by herself so far are personal and what she relates to, like Lady Bird and Little Women. It would be odd if they casted POC just for the sake of it cause different cultures have different experiences when growing up

[@MrDawnRise]

I think Greta should evaluate Caddyshack and then maybe her position on improvisation.

[@jeffb587]

*caddyshack

[@MrDawnRise]

Thanks

[@samwalters9712]

I don't think she's saying there's no value in improv, only that it isn't how she works and writes.

[@MrDawnRise]

Sam Walters I rewatched it. I didn't hear any words to suggest that.

[@samwalters9712]

In responding to how her own process works in regard to improv "I'm not interested in it...but it is notable". She never said there's nothing profitable in improv, just that it isn't how she works/writes or her personal preference best despite her background in it.

[@christiancamacho5887]

I AM THE BIG APPLE!!!

[@danielpatterson9035]

Why are you dosing me now when I watch this? Is that important? Sergey always does something at the wrong time. Seriously. Stop zapping me.

[@Caprizonica]

I completely agree with her but I don't find it notable. Im sick of fucking overrated overused improv.

[@MasterAppels]

I wouldn't let people improv my script if I'm directing as well, except if I have a shit ton of money so I could give 20+ takes per shot, and I wouldn't like an acting job where I need to improv 20%+ of my lines.

[@megamoviez]

Foreigner To me improv only works depending on how the original line was. For example when Han Solo says "I Know" that was improv and worked so well. Also in Jaws "You're gonna need a bigger boat" was all improv. If you read the original scripts to both films the lines were much more lame than what was actually said.

[@tatehildyard5332]

Master I think it depends on how good your actors are and how good you are as a writer director. In my experience in film school, a lot of writer/directors become too protective of their words to realize when something just isn't working. Sometimes the lines work on paper but just don't work on set or they just don't jive with your actors. In that case, a little improv is a lifesaver. It's really big now with comedies because the improv scene is where a lot of our big screen comedians and writers are being discovered these days.

[@HermanFalckHow]

Can't stand movie improv. Some do it well, most do not. Writers sit with that script for months perfecting that dialogue. The actor is 99/100 times not going to find something better in the moment. It is an excuse for bad actors to not learning their lines. It is lazy and should not be encouraged.

[@RomanZolanski123]

Or opposite, bad writing giving actors more opportunities to find better alternatives

[@VivekKumar-rx3ss]

Chalaet rahae. Chau .. arre ta e chuet jayat. Tab hou.

[@VivekKumar-rx3ss]

Cable chaal chalte hi saalo ko rehpat ghasit aur gher ke torching Kar.

[@hd-xc2lz]

She comes up through Mumblecore, both acting and writing, a genre with a unique approach to script, and defined by its reliance on improv … then marries indy filmmaker Noah Baumbach who never veers from what's written on the page… and today Greta Gerwig never veers from what's written on the page. All very sad, another woman who gave up what could have been her voice for that of her husband's.

[@hd-xc2lz]

Yep, people change. But evolved? More like did a 180. Please take the time to listen to the dialogue in a Baumbach film pre-Gerwig, think you'll find same high degree of twee-ness, same rhythms, same types of laughs that show up in Greta's writing today. SO very different from her mumblecore writing. This is something that happens more often than not with couples in the same creative field, AND not the sort of thing such couples ever admit to publicly.

[@hd-xc2lz]

I'm in a creative field myself, see it often. Such couples IN GENERAL don't admit dom/sub status publicly, but often comes out in the instance of break-ups/divorce, and far more likely it's the female member who subordinates herself.... and resents herself and partner for it.

[@benrujo]

I agree with everything you've said except for the conclusion that it's sad. Maybe she needs to go through this phase of her filmmaking to progress to something else, and if she does, maybe she'll have outgrown her husband. I'm not in a creative field, but I don't think we should be afraid of imitation.

[@hd-xc2lz]

@Ben Agree 100% with gist of your comment, particularly the usefulness of close imitation. But it has to be a ladder once climbed one kicks out from beneath oneself, and when you're married to that "ladder" seems the kicking is loads more difficult. Nevertheless, hope you're right and I'm very wrong about her being stuck.

[@totalpartykill999]

she makes me want to watch todd solondz movies