Adorkable. That's the portmanteau often used to describe Greta Gerwig, the tall, blond actress who has carved out a comfy niche in screwball comedies. Lately she's also co-written them with her off-screen beau Noah Baumbach.
In their two writing collaborations, Frances Ha and Mistress America (opening Friday), Gerwig plays variations on a theme: the young New York woman who leaves a whirlwind in her wake. In the sublime Frances, she's bumbling and uncertain. In Mistress America, her Brooke is a schemer who talks a good game as she takes a college freshman (Lola Kirke) under her wing.
We sat down with Gerwig, 32, during a recent stop in Dallas to discuss Brooke, Baumbach and the art of screwball.
Are you like Brooke? Do you know Brooke?
I've known Brookes, but I'm not really like Brooke. I've definitely seen them operating in the world. They know everybody and they've got a lot of business deals that seem kind of shady. They're always on the move. They don't seem to be very close to anyone but they can have a general five-minute conversation with everybody. Every third thing that comes out of their mouth sounds like a lie, but then some of it turns out to be true, so you're not sure what part of it is lies and what part of it is true. They are like hustlers: lady, small-time hustlers.
How did you meet Noah?
I met Noah when I was in his movie Greenberg, but I went to the New York Comedy Festival when I was 19 or 20 and he was one of the people performing. It was he and Steve Martin and some other people. It was at City Hall. I went with my college boyfriend. Noah was really funny.
You've now written two films together. What is your collaborative process like?
We spend a lot of time talking. We spend a lot of time looking at movies and reading books and thinking about what we might want to do or think is funny. When we're initially generating material, we tend to go into different rooms or go away and write. We'll write 10 or 15 pages, print it out and then trade and read them. Then we sort of see how they fit together and see what the next thing is. At a certain point, we start building the script sequentially.
Are you a fan of the classic screwball comedies?
Yeah, I love them. I love the movies from the '30s and '40s, movies by Howard Hawks and Preston Sturges and George Cukor. Those movies, even when I saw them when I was really young, I felt like I instantly understood them because they felt like theater to me - the pace and the rhythm of the words. That's why I responded to them.
When did you first realize you were funny?
Oh, I don't feel like I'm funny. I do quite badly when people say "be funny here" or "write something funny." I think I do best when I find humor in these little corners that aren't so obvious. I don't think of myself as a funny person. I don't know. I'm still figuring it out.
