Greta Gerwig’s favourite Laurie Anderson song: “One of the greatest lyrics”
In Greta Gerwig’s world, the realms of music and film have always intertwined. Finding the right score or the right soundtrack for her movies is crucial, with her recent work on Barbie especially leading to several award wins for the movie’s songs. But even when it comes to her own personal favourite tracks, they feel representative of her creative inner world. When discussing her favourite song by Laurie Anderson, her choice feels like it could be an unofficial theme tune for her character in Frances Ha, or a soundtrack to the director’s own personal doubts.
The connection between Gerwig and her characters has always been there. Several times in her filmography, things seem to have dipped into her own personal life. Her movie Ladybird follows a young girl from Sacramento with big dreams who longs to move to “a city with culture” on the East Coast, mirroring Gerwig’s own cross-country move.
Her character in Frances Ha, directed by her partner Noah Baumbach and written as a collaboration between the two, feels reminiscent of of Gerwig too. Frances is another dreamer who moved to New York to become a dancer. Now 27, the film is about the conflict between giving in and sticking to your dreams and it wonders what success means or looks life.
The contemplation of that film sounds exactly like the tale held in her favourite Laurie Anderson song. Born in Illinois, Anderson is a kin of Gerwig’s, another dreamer who moved from a small town to the ultimate big city in search of culture and like-minded people and goals come true. But as both found, as Gerwig considers in her films, that’s never a simple thing to do. The path to glory is paved with self-doubt, and even when goals are achieved, there is always a niggling voice in the back of your head, telling you it’s not enough.
That voice acts as the narrator in Anderson’s track ‘Baby Doll’, one of Gerwig’s all-time favourite songs. But, much like the character of Frances and the film Frances Ha, it handles that worry with a lightness and a sense of joy. “This is an incredibly happy song,” Gerwig said. “It is also a song that I feel relates to my life as it is — making art and not knowing exactly what you’re doing all the time.”
“It features one of the greatest lyrics, I think,” she continued, picking out the lyric, “Take me to the movies ’cause I love to sit in the dark.” For Gerwig, a movie maker who knows the stress of big dreams well, that line in this song means so much to her.
It must feel like the song is speaking straight to her as the director explained, “It’s about her brain, talking to her. It’s like one part of her brain is saying, ‘Why don’t you get a real job?’ and ‘What’s wrong with you?’ you know, and struggling to come up with words, and the other part of her brain is like, ‘Take me to the movies’ and ‘Take me to the ballpark’ and ‘Take me out town tonight’ and there is something about the celebration of the part of you that wants to slack off and just go have fun that I love!”
Watch any behind-the-scenes footage of Gerwig at work, and it becomes clear that that sense of fun is a vital part of her process. The clips of her laughing on the set of Ladybird as she directs Saoirse Ronan and Lucas Hedges, or in the documentary about the joyous making of Barbie when she demanded the whole crew wear pink, it’s obvious that the director has merged those two parts of her brain as she focuses on her art while still serving the part of herself that wants to have fun.
