Greta Gerwig on the Grownups in 'Lady Bird' Javascript must be enabled to use this site. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try again. × Search search POPULAR SEARCHES SUGGESTED LINKS Join AARP for just $9 per year when you sign up for a 5-year term. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Leaving AARP.org Website You are now leaving AARP.org and going to a website that is not operated by AARP. A different privacy policy and terms of service will apply. Close
Greta Gerwig on the Grownups in Lady Bird
The director of the best-reviewed film in Rotten Tomatoes history credits her stars
Director Greta Gerwig, 34, says you might be surprised how her new film "Lady Bird" caters to the older generation. Andrew Francis Wallace/Toronto Star/Getty Images Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Your movie has an ending like The 400 Blows and a first scene, with the mom and daughter asleep, that seems very Persona (Ingmar Bergman’s 1967 Liv Ullmann-Bibi Andersson classic). Very Persona! You see they’re the same, in a way, in a moment of tranquility between them only possible in unconsciousness. Then you see Laurie [Metcalf, playing Ronan’s mother] making the bed. That tells you everything about the character without words — only a certain kind of mother would make the bed in a motel. Actress Saoirse Ronan, left, and director Greta Gerwig, on the set of "Lady Bird" Merie Wallace/Courtesy of A24 Laurie Metcalf, 62, is on a big career roll — she got the Roseanne show revived on TV, and she’s on Supergirl and The Big Bang Theory. I grew up without TV, so I’d never seen Roseanne, but I’d seen her in Chicago at Steppenwolf and in Misery on Broadway, one of the most extraordinary performances I’d ever seen. Your movie is very theatrical, in good ways. Tracy Letts, 52, who won the Pulitzer for August, Osage County, plays Lady Bird’s dad. Stephen Henderson, 68, who plays Lady Bird’s Sondheim-loving drama teacher, won a Drama Desk Award. Your dialogue is a little theatrical. Entertainment $3 off popcorn and soft drink combos See more Entertainment offers > I wanted someone to see Lady Bird, and see all of her — to not be taken in by her, to see her problems and flaws and still say, “I like you.” But not in a saccharine way, or a way that’s excusing what’s wrong with this girl, but like that Southern saying: “God loves you just as you are, but too much to let you stay that way.” It’s about that deep pleasure of being seen by someone completely. Lois has this empathy that emanates from her, not sympathy, empathy from having lived such a life. It’s palpable. The teenage girls just adored her. Between setups for scenes of her teaching class or doing skirt-length check, all the teenage girls would be around her talking to her because she has this quality of genuinely being wise. Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf play a mother and daughter in "Lady Bird." Merie Wallace/Courtesy of A24 Smith has stolen onscreen scenes from James Dean in East of Eden, Jack Nicholson in Five Easy Pieces, Tom Cruise in Minority Report, and Jon Hamm in — all movies as good as yours. What Lady Bird scene would you put on a reel with those performances? The one when Lady Bird is back from suspension, and Sister Sarah Joan knows she’s probably done something else deserving suspension. She tells Lady Bird something about herself and about love. We don’t cut to a close-up, but you have such a clear picture of her face, you feel like it was a close-up. It’s something about her voice and the way she says it that just resonates. She’s one in a million. And which scene of Laurie Metcalf’s would you choose? The scene that makes me cry reliably — and I’ve seen it hundreds of times — is when she comes into Lady Bird’s bedroom, hangs up a dress from the thrift store, picks up something off her bed and just looks at her asleep. It breaks my heart, all these invisible things that parents do that you’ll never know. You love this teenager, this crazy girl, so much that you don’t know what to do. You just watch her sleep. More on entertainment AARP NEWSLETTERS %{ newsLetterPromoText }% %{ description }% Subscribe AARP VALUE & MEMBER BENEFITS See more Health & Wellness offers > See more Flights & Vacation Packages offers > See more Finances offers > See more Health & Wellness offers > SAVE MONEY WITH THESE LIMITED-TIME OFFERS