Empire Australasia — December 2017

Clockwise from left:
Chadwick Boseman
suited up as Black
Panther; T’Challa, aka
Black Panther, takes on
Michael B. Jordan’s
supervillain Erik
Killmonger; Black market
arms dealer Ulysses
Klaue (Andy Serkis) with
CIA operative Everett
K. Ross (Martin Freeman);
Lupita Nyong’o as elite
bodyguard Nakia
with Letitia Wright
as inventor and
princess Shuri.

HAVING CO-WRITTEN Frances Ha and Mistress

America with Noah Baumbach, Greta Gerwig has

now struck out alone as a writer-director with

Lady Bird. Starring Saoirse Ronan, it’s a personal

story that, Gerwig says, is not quite as it seems.

Would you call this a coming-of-age fi lm?

I wanted to construct the movie as a Trojan

horse. One person’s coming of age is another

person’s letting go — I’m just as interested in

the letting go. Ostensibly it seems like the lead

character is Lady Bird, but it turns out to be

her mother. It’s been really interesting to watch

people respond to that. Particularly parents.

Have you spoken to them?

A lot of people have come up to me to say they

just dropped their daughter or son at college and

that I’d captured something that’s true about that

time, that it’s incredibly painful.

How autobiographical is Lady Bird?

Nothing that happens in the fi lm literally

happened to me, but it’s the setting of my youth

and it also has a core of emotional honesty that

resonates with what I know.

What feedback have you had from girls like

Saoirse’s character?

wed a group of high-school students who

at the Telluride Film Festival and a lot of

said, “My mum and I fi ght like that!” I said,

ow. It’s a hard one when you’re a teenager.”

ou were her age, would you have cast

ourself in Saoirse’s role?

t’s hard for me to write if I think of myself

cting. I have to imagine a character

eparately. And Saoirse brings so much to

. I wouldn’t have given myself the part if
ad auditioned myself — I would have
iven it to Saoirse!

YBIRD IS IN CINEMAS FROM 15 FEBRUARY 2018

Actor Greta Gerwig on her behind-

the-camera debut, Lady Bird

WORDS ALEX GODFREY

Above:

Greta Gerwig

moves behind

the camera.

Below:

Saoirse Ronan

as Christine

‘Lady Bird’

McPherson.