When Lady Bird writer-director Greta Gerwig and star Saoirse Ronan took the stage in the Golden Globes press room, they sparked a rowdy round of congratulatory hooting and hollering — to which they responded by hooting and hollering right back, clutching their award statuettes.
When the noise quieted down, the two melted into smiles.
Given how her solo directorial debut dovetails with the rise of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, Gerwig addressed gender equality in entertainment.
“It’s been such an incredible year for women — as actors and writers and directors and producers, people coming to the forefront to tell stories from their world as they see it,” she said. “The support they’ve gotten and the way audiences [have received them] — it all makes it so much easier for the next crop of filmmakers who want to tell stories about women.”
Ronan said she felt “very lucky that from an early age I’ve gotten to do what I want to do.”
“There was definitely a time,” she continued, “when you’re trying to figure out what your role [in life] is... and the role of Lady Bird was not around back then — and that was not that long ago! And it’s an incredibly special thing to have a character like that.”
How much of Lady Bird is autobiographical? Gerwig shook her head, as if to say, “not at all.”
“She was sort of the opposite of how I was growing up. I was a rule follower, and I didn’t dye my hair bright red,” Gerwig said. “It was an exploration of the kind of person I wanted to be back then. That being said, I’m from Sacramento and went to Catholic girls school, but who Lady Bird is was born from my imagination.”
Gerwig was especially excited about one of the movie’s fans: “I saw Justin Timberlake, and he saw the movie, and he gives his thumbs up,” she said. “That began my night and I thought: ‘Man, that’s amazing, that’s all you need!’”
