Greta Gerwig on Learning to Direct: "I Learned I Could Do It" by Doing It | Director Roundtable - video Dailymotion

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Gerwig credits the directors and cinematographers she worked with as an actor who took her under their wing to teach her the mechanics of filmmaking.

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00:00What did you learn from directing your first film?

00:06Well, I learned that I could do it.

00:08I mean, I think I thought I could do it,

00:10but I think you don't quite know

00:12until you're on the other end of something like that

00:14that you can do it completely.

00:17You sort of have to take the leap

00:18and hope that there's a parachute attached.

00:22I mean, one part of my experience of being,

00:25of learning how to direct

00:26was being on film sets as an actor.

00:28But I've been so lucky to be on different sets

00:32with different directors and DPs

00:34and all of these different people

00:36who took me under their wing

00:38and explained to me what they were doing,

00:39how they were lighting a scene,

00:40where they were putting the booms,

00:42how we were actually getting it.

00:44I always hear about guys

00:45whose parents got them little Super 8 cameras

00:48and they started making films.

00:50And I mean, I'm sure my parents would have gotten me them

00:54if I had asked for it,

00:55but it wasn't something that you gave girls as much.

00:58But what I did was put on plays with everyone I knew.

01:02And I would put on plays with my friends.

01:05It's still a very male-oriented business.

01:07Did that make it hard to get a very female-centered film

01:11off the ground with Lady Bird?

01:13Yes.

01:14How hard was it to get off the ground?

01:15Well, I mean, it's a female-centered film

01:18that is not important with a capital I

01:22that people could identify as,

01:23oh, this is worthy.

01:25This is Wonder Woman.

01:26Or just that it didn't,

01:28it's about people's lives in a quotidian way.

01:32It's not about something so large.

01:36And I feel like as a writer and as a director,

01:39I'm picking up little tiny pebbles.

01:40I wish that you liked me.

01:44Of course I love you.

01:49But do you like me?

01:54I want you to be

01:56the very best version of yourself that you can be.

02:01What if this is the best version?

02:03When I was taking this script around

02:10and because it's a love story

02:13between a mother and a daughter,

02:14I remember every man I talked to

02:16who was raised with sisters

02:20or who had a daughter said,

02:22I know this.

02:23That's my wife and my daughter

02:24or that's my sister and my mom.

02:25And guys who didn't,

02:27they said,

02:28I don't do women fight like this.

02:30Oh, wow.

02:31I was like,

02:32oh, you've never seen this.

02:35Because why would you know

02:36that this is what this relationship is?

02:40That being said,

02:41I mean, I did,

02:42once it happened,

02:43I was not asked to change

02:45what the script was at all.

02:47Greta, what about you?

02:54What would you do if you left film?

02:57Well, I mean,

02:58my first love was actually

03:01theater more than anything else,

03:03theater and dance.

03:04And I didn't know movies

03:05were made by people.

03:06I thought they were handed down from gods.

03:10I didn't,

03:10I mean, I genuinely,

03:12I knew people must have made them,

03:14but I didn't know who they were.

03:16And it wasn't until

03:16I was an adult

03:18that I realized that,

03:20oh, these are made by people.

03:22And part of it was

03:22I started watching films

03:24that weren't products.

03:28They had personality behind them.

03:30And I hadn't really seen quite that.

03:33Like, in New York,

03:34there's Film Forum

03:35and Anthology Film Archives

03:36and Museum of Moving Image.

03:38And I started to see

03:39these very particular,

03:40strange movies

03:41that I wasn't totally sure

03:42what to make of.

03:43But they felt like,

03:45I remember the first time

03:46I saw

03:48Tropical Malady,

03:50the Apichat Pong film.

03:52Where is that?

03:53Yeah.

03:53Yeah, and I thought

03:54it made me angry

03:56because it's a bifurcated structure

03:58and I'd never seen anything like it.

04:00I was like,

04:01what is this?

04:03It's clear to me

04:04that it's clear to him,

04:05but I can't figure it out.

04:07And I went back

04:08again and again

04:09and I had the same experience

04:10with,

04:11we were talking about

04:12Claire Denis' film,

04:13Bo Trevay.

04:14I sort of couldn't,

04:16but I saw it,

04:17I suddenly saw it as art

04:18and as made by people.

04:20I knew that

04:27when things came up

04:29that were problems

04:30or difficulties

04:31or something went awry,

04:32that that was not

04:33a deviation from the path,

04:36that that was the path.

04:37And I had that.

04:39And that,

04:40for me,

04:41that was very helpful

04:42because it didn't feel like,

04:43oh God,

04:43the whole thing

04:44is going to fall apart.

04:45It was like,

04:45that is,

04:46that is what it's going to be.

04:48We're going to lose this location

04:49and this person,

04:50it won't work

04:50and we're going to have

04:51to move this around.

04:51But it didn't,

04:53in that way,

04:53I didn't have a moment of like,

04:55I had no idea

04:56that this was going to happen.

04:58I had a much,

04:59I think,

05:00more strong sense of

05:02the problems are the road.

05:05That's what it's saying

05:06is the obstacle is the path.

05:09Yes.

05:09And always,

05:09the obstacle gives you solutions

05:11that you find

05:12far more interesting

05:13and far more crazy.

05:14It's there for a reason.

05:18Take care.

05:18Bye.

05:19Bye.

05:31Bye.

05:32Bye.

05:33Bye.

05:35Bye.

Greta Gerwig on Learning to Direct: "I Learned I Could Do It" by Doing It | Director Roundtable

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