Tag Archives: Frances Ha

‘Damsels’ Star Greta Gerwig Interviewed About ‘Frances Ha’

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Star of Damsels in Distress Greta Gerwig talks about her filmmaking and acting experience to moderator Adam Sternbergh on Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha.

Gerwig talks about the ending of the film, finding the right mailbox, stealing locations, prosumer cameras, writing with Noah Baumbach through email, prosumer cameras, shooting in black and white, how she got her start, her acting style, shooting with the Canon 5D Mark III, playing the accordion, etc.

Hopefully Gerwig will win a well deserved Golden Globe.

Other Greta Gerwig Performances (Including Whit Stillman’s ‘Damsels in Distress’)

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Norman Wilner at NowToronto writes about other great Greta Gerwig performances (besides her most recent film Frances Ha).  Of course Damsels in Distress is listed.

Damsels International Poster

 

As a campus queen bee who’s declared that she and her sorority sisters should date loutish frat boys in hopes of improving them and thus the world, Gerwig plays one of Whit Stillman’s well-intentioned idiots without a hint of self-consciousness – or self-awareness – so it’s almost shocking when her character experiences an existential crisis late in the film, rediscovering her purpose through good soap and a South American dance craze.

Greta the Great: Greta Gerwig’s Rise as Hollywood’s New Indie Queen Is Very, Very Real

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Here’s an interview with Greta Gerwig by Lena Dunham from the archives of PAPERMAG:

Greta the Great
Greta Gerwig’s Rise as Hollywood’s New Indie Queen Is Very, Very Real
by Lena Dunham / Styled by Martha Violante
To celebrate the opening weekend and amazing critical reception of her movie Frances Ha, we’re re-posting our February 2011 cover story on Gerwig, written by Lena Dunham. Read below as the two indie film figures discuss rom-coms, anorexia and the difficulties of being an actress who goes against the grain.

LD: Do you think that the fact that you write informs your work as an actress?

GG: Yes, when I’m writing, it makes me less precious about my acting, which kind of makes my acting better. But it can inform it negatively. Because sometimes you need to turn off your brain that says, “Why would I say that?” and just say, “I’m saying it!”

Greta Black and White Photo

LD: The sort of directors who have thus far been attracted to you have been very literate, with a kind of poetry to what they’re doing. Whit Stillman’s Damsels in Distress, there’s something almost Shakespearean about that movie. And Noah Baumbach, there is a really specific rhythm and poetry to his lines. So being a writer and feeling the cadence is important and almost essential. Do you feel like directors have allowed you to be a real architect of your characters because of the first movies you did, like Hannah Takes the Stairs and Nights and Weekends? You were a writer and, in the case of the latter, a co-director.

GG: I think people have given me more freedom, and I feel like I have gotten to participate in discussions in ways that maybe other actresses haven’t been able to. I’ve had producers, executives, say things that I’m sure they don’t say to other actresses, like “You don’t look pretty in this scene. It’s not testing well.”