Greta Gerwig is a hot property in Hollywood. She’s also kind of a hipster intellectual multi-hyphenate It Girl. I’ve always felt like there’s something so familiar about Gerwig, like she’s living the life hundreds of actresses want for themselves but only Gerwig was able to do it – be an indie-film actress with a lot of credibility, then transition to an acclaimed writer-director. Mix in commercial work with artsy work. And have a family on top of everything else – she’s currently pregnant with her second child with her partner Noah Baumbach. Baumbach left his wife Jennifer Jason Leigh for Gerwig. What’s most interesting about Maureen Dowd’s profile of Gerwig is that Dowd spoke to Baumbach about the start of their relationship and didn’t position Gerwig as the mistress/other woman. It was a messy start but they managed to own it breezily. Still, I wonder how JJL really feels. Some highlights from this NYT profile:
Gerwig loves donuts & junk food: “I think, particularly on film sets, I become the child version of myself that wants just junk food,” she said. She read that Steven Spielberg had wooed a reluctant David Lynch to play a cameo as John Ford in “The Fabelmans” by acceding to his request for Cheetos on the set. “Then I felt like a kindred spirit with David Lynch, since we have the same addiction to the salty, cheesy goodness of Cheetos.”
On Barbie dolls: “My mom was a feminist, and I think there was some resistance to all of it and eventually there was relenting. I think I was totally compelled by hair that was 10 times bigger than your body.” She wants the movie “to be something that is both able to come from the adult part of your brain and also remember what it was like to be a little girl just looking at a beautiful Barbie.”
She didn’t care about fashion while directing ‘Barbie’: Ms. Robbie recalled that, in order not to “waste brain power” on her wardrobe, Ms. Gerwig wore the same boiler suit, in different colors, every day of the shoot. “We did pink on Wednesdays,” Ms. Gerwig said.
She hates ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’: “I just never liked it. It made me uncomfortable. There’s something at its core I just don’t like.”
She doesn’t offer directing tips to her partner Noah Baumbach: “He’s incredibly open to suggestion. The truth is, I think if I had wanted to sit there all day, every day, even when I wasn’t on the set, he’d be happy to ask what I thought of every shot. I think also, as a director, there’s a certain loneliness. Mike Nichols said directors need a buddy. So someone who has a thought or a point of view or is looking over your shoulder makes you feel less like you’re having an isolated existential crisis every day.”
They voted for themselves at the 2019 Oscars: “It was so weird in the moment when we actually were there. It’s very funny, but we did actually vote for ourselves. We were at our computers and I was like, ‘Just so you know, I’m going to vote for myself,’ and he said, ‘OK, I’m going to vote for myself, too.’”
Their equanimity with their competing careers: “I feel like it must be hard if you’re 25. I think as you get older, things work, things don’t work. You’re up, you’re down.”
Baumbach on leaving Jennifer Jason Leigh & starting up with Gerwig: “I was going through a hard time in my life, and [Greta] was going through a different time in her life. We really wanted to make it work together, we really wanted to be together, and we were both drawn by that. That’s how we still feel about each other.” He said that he and Ms. Leigh — who has stayed publicly silent about the dissolution of the marriage and her opinion about “Marriage Story” (although Mr. Baumbach told The Wall Street Journal that he screened it for his ex-wife and she liked it) — co-parent their 12-year-old son, Rohmer. “In another completely different way,” he said, “you have to work together on that so that you can be the best parents you can to your great kid.”
The thing about Breakfast at Tiffany’s… it’s not a good movie and it’s also racist AF. But I always understand why Holly Golightly was one of Audrey Hepburn’s most iconic characters – she’s incredible in that role and it was all very iconic and still is. But yeah, she played a hooker and a hustler. Maybe that’s what Gerwig doesn’t like?
“I feel like it must be hard if you’re 25” – meaning, I think, that it must be hard to have a career at 25 and date guys your age with similar careers and have professional jealousy wreak havoc. Baumbach is 53, Gerwig is 39. He already had the “starter marriage” and he left his (older) wife for Gerwig. The age difference and life experience when Gerwig and Baumbach met and fell in love is significant.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach arrive at the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party held at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on February 9, 2020 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 563618784, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
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- Noah Baumbach, Greta Gerwig during ‘White Noise’ premiere and Opening Gala, 79th Venice International Film Festival, Italy – 31 Aug 2022,Image: 718103148, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Maria Laura Antonelli / AGF Foto / Avalon
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- Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach – Opening Ceremony – White Noise – 79th Venice International Film Festival Venice – Venecia Film Festival – La Biennale Mostra dArte Cinematografica – Lido Venice 1.9.2022 -,Image: 719949909, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NOGER,NOAUS, NOSWISS, Model Release: no, Pictured: White Noise – Venice Opening Cer, Credit line: F.Altmann / Bang Showbiz / Avalon
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- Greta Gerwig attends UK premiere of White Noise during the 66th BFI London Film Festival,Image: 728796394, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Ana M. Wiggins / Avalon
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- Greta Gerwig attends UK premiere of White Noise during the 66th BFI London Film Festival,Image: 728797336, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Ana M. Wiggins / Avalon
I like Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The parts with Mickey Rooney need to be cut out, they are horrifying and don’t add anything to the story anyway (not that that would make them okay, but I just have no idea about them in the first place, wtf?) It’s a good movie if you realize she’s actually a mess who doesn’t have her life together at all and that her reality is very very unglamorous. Capote wanted Marilyn Monroe for it and Monroe also lobbied hard but they went with Hepburn and I kind of thing Monroe would have been better – her intellectualism covered up by an image that was male gaze-y and made her miserable would have fit it better to me. Hepburn is beautiful but she kind of turned it into a princess-y type character, it sort of gives Golightly’s life this Grace Kelly-type of polish that I don’t think fits the message as well.
That’s a great point. A lot of people seem to envy/idolize Holly and it’s gross when you think about it, but a lot of that is because of Hepburn’s portrayal.
Yeah, I think the movie is almost too pretty (racist Mickey Rooney aside). It glosses over the sad reality of Holly’s life. Maybe that was part of the point? Look at this pretty person with this really sad/unglamorous life.
My SIL loves that movie and dresses her daughter (named after Hepburn) up as Holly a lot, especially when she was small (like one, two years old) and I always kind of want to ask her…..have you actually seen the movie?
I just remember the first time I saw it, like actually watched it, not just a clip, thinking it was depressing AF.
I only recently watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s for the first time, but I was always highly aware of it since it’s Hepburn’s most iconic role. Honestly I don’t think it’s her portrayal that’s the issue. I was shocked by the depth and sadness she brought to that character. Her performance deserves to be iconic. Just not for the reasons it is.
That’s a movie where you really wish they had made both versions. Or a very similar, but more realistic story with Marilyn. That movie has a really strange vibe. It’s terrible, but Audrey. Me, sometimes I fall into the vibe, but other viewings I just hate it. Must admit I saw it in the theater first, and the glamour of it is overwhelming.
It wouldn’t necessarily have been better with Marilyn, but it certainly would have been different. The reason the producers would not give the part to MM was because of her image. Hepburn was considered squeaky clean and that was the only way to get it past the censors. They took enough grief over the subject matter as it was.
There is actually a book by Sam Wasson called, Fifth Avenue, 5 AM, which is all about how this movie came to be made and why certain decisions (such as not casting Marilyn) were made. Bottom line is it couldn’t be made then unless it was somewhat sanitized and cleaned up. Ironically, just a few years later, things really loosened up and the censorship system was scrapped.
The decision maker behind Mickey Rooney as the Japanese neighbor was Blake Edwards, the director. No one else thought this was appropriate or remotely funny, including Audrey Hepburn and George Axelrod, the screenwriter. But Edwards who was good buddies with Rooney convinced the producers to keep these scenes which should have been cut. Hepburn offered to reshoot them and only get paid scale. That’s how much she hated the racist portrayal. Thus what could have been a truly iconic movie was ruined forever.
@Brassy Rebel, I have and love that book! I’d forgotten about it but I’m glad you reminded me because I think it’s time for a reread.
I absolutely love the book. It’s such a different experience from the film. The complexity of Holly Golightly would have been hard to portray for any actress, particularly within the script they ended up with.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s presents itself as a frothy, chic romp, but it has a dark and rather sordid heart if you pay attention to it. Anyone going into it thinking it’s the former is in for a rude shock. It is a dark, adult tale – with a great Henry Mancini soundtrack by the way. Marilyn Monroe would have been a revelation in it, but alas. Still, Audrey Hepburn made the most of it.
I’ve read the actual Capote book/story that the movie came from and it is even more sordid beneath the surface. Holly ends up in Africa, adrift and who knows how she ends up finally. She’s just adrift and forever seeking for what she’ll never find.
In the story, the Asian character, that was horribly miscast and used in the film, had more nuance. The male character, who George Peppard played in the film, spent more time with him than you see in the film.
She hates ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’: “I just never liked it. It made me uncomfortable. There’s something at its core I just don’t like.”
Cheating with a married man is something I don’t like either. There’s something at its core I just don’t like. **rolls eyes**
**Rolls eyes** when the only takeaway you can possibly have is “cheating = bad person.” That’s so reductive. We know nothing about these peoples’ lives, the hardships they were going through, and I’ve had it up to my teats with the moralizing/vilifying of “cheaters.”
“You went through a emotionally challenging time in your life and relationships, and now you have a nuanced view of life and its complexity? Doesn’t matter, *someone* cheated, so your integrity as a whole is voided and I will hate you forever.”
A little bit tween-ish, isn’t it?
This comment is a bit tween-ish tbh. An adult deciding what their moral deal breakers are isn’t something they have to explain or justify. If cheating isn’t a deal breaker for you then cool – lots of folks feel differently. And yes we can have nuanced thoughts about it. Like – “hey maybe someone else’s life experience has created those deal breakers and that’s okay”.
I’m with you, Squiddus.
I am with Ameerah M here. It doesn’t take a lot of time or energy to sever ties with a spouse if you really want to, so – it is a moral deal breaker for me. If my husband was considering cheating, it would likely be because there are other problems. If he cheats before coming and discussing those problems with me, as my spouse, as my forever love, as the father of my children, as a solid part of our core family, then yes – our marriage is over, morality or not, his decision ruins our family. It is not tweenish – I consider it very adult of me to have boundaries in place as to what I find acceptable. If I cheated on him, I would not expect him to forgive that.
There are absolutely better ways to end a relationship than cheating. No, the cheater is not the victim, puh lease.
Cheating happens so often that it seems there’s something innately human about it, our inability to face up to hard choices (ending the relationship, having the difficult talks, being the bad guy) and our preference to escape those situations. Personally I find it hard to understand that people are so unable to end a relationship first before pursuing somebody else. It would not fit with me personally as I love things to be tidy and uncomplicated. It seems like too much work to have overlapping relationships.
I don’t understand what cheating has to do with the validity of one’s opinions about films.
I get her hate for Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Mickey Rooney’s yellow face character ruined that movie, it was such a gross stereotype. Also because of the time period, they couldn’t just come out and say she was a hooker and he was gay. Audrey Hepburn’s wardrobe was amazing and she was so good in it but can’t watch that film now. Never really liked Gerwig as actor but seems her directorial work is more solid. Was kinda shocked when found out who her partner was because knew he was married to the iconic Jennifer Jason Leigh so a bit surprised about it.
This interview just makes me want to see more of JJL and less of these two.
@Twin Falls, same! I realize that I’m biased because my father left my mother for his mistress when I was about ten years old, but I cannot abide adultery and don’t enjoy tv shows or movies about it. (Or books — everyone loves the book “28 Summers” by Elin Hilderbrand, and while I usually like her books, I just find that one to be kind of repulsive.) It’s impossible for me to see adultery as “entertainment.” The scene with Emma Thompson in Love Actually broke my heart! I know I’m probably a little over the top about it because of what happened when I was growing up, but I just cannot.
And anyway, JJL is awesome! I’ve liked her since Fast Times at Ridgemont High, lol.
I got pulled into the “glamorous” view of Breakfast at Tiffany’s when I was a lot younger, but seeing Mickey Rooney’s character now…YIKES
This isn’t just about cheating, but about how experiences can affect our moral compass.
I had a visceral reaction to a friend dating one of our professors. She was an almost 30-yr old single mom, and he was about 20 years older. Anyway, it caused a problem between me, her, and him, and was, frankly, unfair to other students. She got a coveted internship at the agency he was affiliated with in a location that supposedly was phasing out new hires. It’s too much to get into specifics, but I later realized it’s because my father cheated on my stepmom with a co-ed while he was an instructor at a university. It affected all of our lives. A lot.
I realize all was not well in my parent’s marriage, and the professor was already in the middle of a divorce when he started seeing my ‘friend’. It doesn’t change the way I feel about the whole thing. That professor risked his own career, with young kids he was still responsible for. I know there are always extenuating circumstances in all kinds of relationships as SquiddusMaximus noted, but I kind of don’t care.
Two things: 1) end your current relationship before starting a new one 2) don’t date students. I don’t really care about the rest.
Yep, I never forget a cheater/mistress.
Does it matter if the person being cheated on was abusive? Or if the cheater had his/her own mental struggles that made it difficult to leave? Poor example by parents, or financial insecurity? What if the adulterers were in love, and their existing relationships were gradually revealed to be dysfunctional? An emotionally unavailable partner who refuses to change? And alcoholic than can never follow through? Does the extent of the affair make a difference — say, leaving your partner immediately after cheating, vs. staying for months or years? And what if you go on to marry the person?
See what I mean? Life is complex, and it doesn’t get any easier. Not cheating is, of course, a good guideline, but shit happens. I get really frustrated when the moral absolutists pounce all over these stories to crow about how these people are doomed to unhappiness. Oh, and that he will inevitably cheat on her.
JJL comes across in interviews as being not all that bright — her talking about The Machinist is like she was in a totally different film. That obviously isn’t an excuse for adultery (which is bad no matter what), but a big intellectual difference between partners is hard to overcome, and could be why their marriage was struggling already.
What a Cool GIrl! I’ve never known anyone like her. /s
Baumbach’s early films reek of sexism. Also, I wouldn’t call it a starter marriage when there’s children involved. The timeline is fuzzy at best, and totally unethical at worst. Similar to the Mary Louise Parker situation just a better PR job.
To me, they are cancelled.
Yeah this part ⬆️ I remember the shock because she (JJL) had just had a baby. She filed I believe before the baby was a year old at seven months. Then he was suddenly with his star actress. And who condones cheating unless you had your own experience as a cheater? I never understood why it was so hard to break up with someone before being with someone else. There is no excuse for overlapping even if you’re Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.
BAT is the greatest example of casting against type and source material I can think of. Without Hepburn’s regal unicorn magic (and underlying sexlessness on screen), it’s just a tawdry and overheated novella very much stuck in its time period. If Marilyn Monroe or Liz Taylor had been cast as Capote wanted I sincerely doubt it would be remembered as anything more than an aggressively campy and racist period piece.
I’m eternally annoyed by how she and Baumbach are lauded as this amazing dual-director power couple, when there exists an equally if not more amazing dual-director couple that is truly a union of peers without a sketchy start and gross age difference: Lulu Wang and Barry Jenkins. More of Lulu and Barry, please!
Well, I guess people keep asking because they keep trying to finesse the mess. JJL drew a line and moved on, playing Florence Pugh to their Olivia Wilde. They should just shut up about the timeline; nothing they say will change anyone’s mind at this point.
Really only like the film for Cat 🐈
And Audrey’s wardrobe and makeup
I would love love love to find that perfect lipstick she puts on in the taxi
Such a beautiful elegant woman
Not so keen on anything else about it
I think Lisa Eldridge makes a lipstick shade inspired by that scene
Thank you ..Yes I discovered
Unfortunately sold out 😿
Breakfast At Tiffany’s feels off because they made major changes to the characters and sanitized the story to a ridiculous degree, but didn’t actually bother re-writing enough to hide its darker beginnings. So on its face it’s just a fun little romance with chic stars, but there’s all these other undercurrents going on that the film ignores but are nonetheless very much present. It’s an unsettling film for that reason.
Plus the really bad for its own time racism, obviously.
I remember giddily renting Breakfast at Tiffany’s with my friends when we were about 15. We were so excited to see what this “””iconic””” movie was about…right until the Mickey Rooney scene.
It was disgusting, unnecessary, and really painful to see as a 15 year old Asian girl.