Greta Gerwig Video Interview On ‘Frances Ha’

Well, really Noah [Baumbach] and I when we were writing the movie let the character kind of guide us as to what the story was, and who she was, and we really do a lot of exploratory writing, and it's one of those things that you feel like you almost can't take credit for because she just appeared on the page in a way then when I acted the part it was like a whole other level of embodying it, and it felt like this kind of crazy physical performance. But each step she really seemed like this distinct person and this story emerged from who she was.

I mean she’s incredible. She’s an amazing actress she’s one of those actresses that’s truly transformational. She just melts into her part and you can’t recognize her. Actually, when we’d been at film festivals—people like — they’ll come up to me and I’m standing right beside her and they’ll be like, ‘You were so amazing in the movie’ to me, and I’m like, 'She was in the movie too!' And they can't — because she’s blond and British and sexy— anyway — but she auditioned and as soon as she auditioned, as soon as I was reading lines with her — actually my favorite experience was I felt like I had been struggling as an actor to find out who Frances was and as soon as she started acting with me I felt like Frances came out of me because all of a sudden Sophie was there, and it was one of those cool experiences where like acting with another person elevates your performance.

Yeah, I mean, we definitely had different trajectories in our 20s but I will say that I very much know what it feels like to struggle [laughs]! Especially, I mean I had more immediate feedback in my early 20s about feeling like I was on the right path even though I wasn’t monetarily successful and… So I didn’t have like — I didn’t feel like I was quite as struggling so hard but I think if you do anything in the arts you always feel very close to it falling apart and not being able to do it so you never lose that fear [laughs] — to be honest.

I mean really it was one of the best experiences I'€™ve ever had both as a writer and as an actor. I'€™ve never been in a band but its my idea of what it must feel like to be in a really functional band where the songwriting is going really well, and I don'€™t know it feels like writing a song in a way — and I say that without really knowing what writing a song feels like but at the end of it its one coherent thing but it has like two voices - like Lennon and McCartney but not as huge [laughs].