“I love that woman”: the actor Greta Gerwig called a role model
A decade ago, the odds would have been extremely long on Greta Gerwig directing a billion-dollar movie and setting countless records, and not only for the fact she didn’t make her feature-length debut behind the camera until 2017.
The actor and filmmaker was one of the faces of the ‘mumblecore’ movement and a regular fixture of small-scale, independent dramas favouring naturalistic performances, as well as extensive and heavily improvised dialogue. These works were largely focused on the trials and tribulations of adulthood, which were generally made at a cost that wouldn’t even cover the catering budget of a Hollywood blockbuster.
Not that it prevented Gerwig from being singled out as one of her generation’s most promising filmmaking talents when her first two features, Lady Bird and Little Women, earned multiple Academy Award nominations before Barbie exploded to become a certifiable cultural juggernaut.
The highest-grossing release of 2023, the top-earning movie ever directed by a woman, and another awards season heavy hitter, Gerwig holds the unique distinction of having all three of her features to date make the ‘Best Picture’ shortlist at the Oscars. It can’t be ruled out, but her 100% track record might be over after she takes the next step in her evolution unless, of course, Netflix’s reboot of The Chronicles of Narnia blows the Academy away.
When Gerwig first started out, she probably couldn’t have envisioned herself becoming an inspiration for an entire generation of aspiring female filmmakers after steering Barbie to such colossal success. However, she had a major influence of her own she was striving to emulate long before she’d even called action on her first effort as a director.
In fact, she didn’t even hesitate when quizzed by SF Gate on her role models, with Emma Thompson the answer. “I love that woman,” she said. “She writes great scripts, and she is regal, yet has this joie de vivre. I tend to gravitate towards men’s careers because men tend to wear more hats – the actor/writer/director combination seems to be very present in men, and less so in women.”
Having won Oscars for her acting and writing abilities during a decades-long career that didn’t take long to establish her as a multifaceted powerhouse talent, Gerwig is far from the only person to have cited Thomson as a major inspiration. She may have never directed, but long before the Barbie helmer had even picked up the megaphone, the way Thompson shaped her own career as both a performer and screenwriter is a path that Gerwig was determined to follow.
Needless to say, it was mission accomplished and then some on that front, with Gerwig now one of the industry’s most in-demand talents and a globally famous filmmaker a mere three movies into her directorial endeavours.
