My Greta Gerwig Weekend

This weekend I watched Lady Bird, Little Women and Barbie. I listened to Greta Gerwig on two separate Big Picture podcast episodes and read all I could find on her and her work.

Here is what I learned:

1. There is a Greta Gerwig movie for all my moods. I love each of her films for very different reasons.

2. And my new mantra comes from Greta Gerwig.

During one of the interviews I listened to, Sean Fennessey asked Gerwig how she knew she was ready to write and direct a movie. Her response?

“I realized, I’m not going to learn anymore by not doing it.”

-Greta Gerwig

Oof. As a person who holds a bachelor’s degree, two master’s degrees, has completed (and not completed) countless on-line classes and is constantly debating going back to school to become a librarian, these words hit hard.

After watching so much of Greta’s work this weekend, I trust her.

Lady Bird, Gerwig’s first solo writer-director gig, was good. Her development of the mother-daughter relationship was brilliant and I loved hearing her talk about how young adults and moms get totally different things out of the film. But was Lady Bird a movie I am anxious to see again? Not really. Is it a film that I will recommend to everyone I know? Probably not. But Gerwig did it and she learned a ton by doing it. Lady Bird led her to Little Women. Saoirse Ronan and Timothee Chalamet star in both films. I have no doubt that their performances in Little Women, which are remarkable, grew from the relationships they developed with each other and with Greta during the filming of Lady Bird.

One led to the other.

And then when people in Hollywood looked for a female director to direct Barbie, a movie that was sure to be a summer blockbuster, the success of Little Women led them directly to Greta Gerwig.

And now look where she is… through talent and hard work surely but also by deciding to do it.

I loved my Greta Gerwig weekend.

And now I am off to practice less, to learn less and to do more.

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