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美国国家公共电台 NPR Director Greta Gerwig On The Parallels Between Her Life And 'Lady Bird'

时间:2018-02-22 08:24:38

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ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Among the Oscar nominees1 for best picture, "Lady Bird" stands out not just because it's directed by a woman, the actress Greta Gerwig - also because compared to the others - "Dunkirk," "Get Out" or "Shape Of Water" - its story is deceptively simple. A teenage girl in Sacramento grows up. That's it.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LADY BIRD")

SAOIRSE RONAN: (As Lady Bird McPherson) My name is Lady Bird.

LAURIE METCALF: (As Marion McPherson) Well, actually it's not, and it's ridiculous...

RONAN: (As Lady Bird McPherson) Call me Lady Bird like you said you would.

METCALF: (As Marion McPherson) ...Because your name is Christine.

SHAPIRO: That's Saoirse Ronan playing Lady Bird and Laurie Metcalf playing her mother. Director Greta Gerwig told my co-host Audie Cornish that there are a lot of parallels between Gerwig's life and Lady Bird's. Both grew up in Sacramento, went to an all-girls Catholic high school and ended up going to the East Coast for college. Still, Gerwig says she was nothing like her main character.

GRETA GERWIG: I was actually sort of the opposite of Lady Bird. The movie - I always say it's not true, but it rhymes with the truth.

SHAPIRO: And she told Audie that some of the lines in the movie actually came from a very real place.

GERWIG: I was actually on the subway in New York, and I heard two teenage girls talking. One of them said to the other one, I wish I could live through something. And I laughed, and I wrote it down. And I put it in the movie...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LADY BIRD")

RONAN: (As Lady Bird McPherson) I wish I could live through something.

METCALF: (As Marion McPherson) Aren't you?

RONAN: (As Lady Bird McPherson) Nope. The only exciting thing about 2002 is that it's a palindrome.

GERWIG: ...Because I think that's such an understandable (laughter) feeling, particularly for teenagers, this feeling like life is happening somewhere else and not to you.

AUDIE CORNISH, BYLINE2: One feature of being a teenager is the kind of morphing and flexibility3 of friendships, right? It feels like a moving target. And in this movie, one of the key relationships that Lady Bird, or Christine, has is with her best friend.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LADY BIRD")

BEANIE FELDSTEIN: (As Julie Steffans) Ms. Patty assigned you a role, by the way. You just never showed up to claim it.

RONAN: (As Lady Bird McPherson) What role?

FELDSTEIN: (As Julie Steffans) The Tempest.

RONAN: (As Lady Bird McPherson) There is no role of The Tempest.

FELDSTEIN: (As Julie Steffans) It is the titular4 role.

RONAN: (As Lady Bird McPherson) No, it's a made-up thing so we all can participate.

FELDSTEIN: (As Julie Steffans) You can't do anything unless you're the center of attention, can you?

RONAN: (As Lady Bird McPherson) Yeah. Well, you know...

(LAUGHTER)

GERWIG: Oh, I just love hearing their voices.

CORNISH: Oh, yeah, that was Beanie Feldstein playing the best friend, Julie.

GERWIG: Yeah.

CORNISH: What did you want to explore about friendships 'cause I do feel like it felt so familiar, right? Someone ditches you for the popular girls, or you do that to your friend, right? You have these blowout arguments. And you recover, or you don't.

GERWIG: Right.

CORNISH: How did you want to bring this to the screen?

GERWIG: Well, I wanted to explore the fact that I think when you're a teenager, you're trying to figure out who you are through the refraction of other people. It's reaching for a definition of oneself through relationships and sometimes rejecting the ones that are close to you because you are sure that someone else is better; someone would reflect a better self to you. It's like that wanting to be reflected back as cooler than you are somehow.

CORNISH: As you say this, it does make me think about the other relationships in the movie, right? The young men that she dates are different personalities5 - right? - different skins that she's trying on.

GERWIG: That's right.

CORNISH: And then the ultimate relationship, the one with her mother, is the rockiest.

GERWIG: Yeah. You're expressing what your understanding of love is, and the healing of her relationship with her mother - her acceptance that she's both in some ways exactly like her mother and also a separate entity6 - it's painful and necessary. But I think it's what needs to happen to allow her to have, you know, friendships and romantic relationships. I mean, I'm always interested, particularly for Lady Bird, the way - with romantic relationships, you know the movie that's playing in her head, and that's not the movie she's in.

CORNISH: (Laughter).

GERWIG: It's that kind of necessary narcissism7 of youth which I have so much sympathy for.

CORNISH: How come?

GERWIG: Oh, because I've been there.

(LAUGHTER)

CORNISH: You know, she felt like a cousin to a character you've played before. I was thinking of "Frances Ha..."

GERWIG: Yeah.

CORNISH: Like, somebody who is very committed to being creative and to a particular...

GERWIG: Yeah.

CORNISH: ...Form - right? - even if maybe they haven't quite gotten all the way there.

GERWIG: Yeah, you know, I...

CORNISH: Is that a generous description (laughter), or...

GERWIG: Yeah, well, I am interested in people who - in a creative way, not a destructive way - seem to bump up against something that feels slightly manic and a little too much. I think I'm interested in writing and letting - really female characters go too far because I think as women, we're taught to really (laughter) - really keep it together and not be too much and not go too far and not be too loud or too crazy or too ambitious. And I think I like having the space as a writer to explore characters who didn't seem to get that memo8 because there's a freedom to it even when they're failing.

CORNISH: The main character - her intensity9 - it doesn't come from nowhere, right? I think we see over time, it - a lot of it does come from her mom. And this movie takes the mother figure from being the shrill10 voice from downstairs or on the other side of the slammed door. What kind of reaction have you gotten?

GERWIG: You know, I've gotten such a range of reactions. A lot of women have told me, particularly women who are in their 50s or 60s - they've said, you know, I've been that mother, and I've been that daughter, and I understand both. And that's very meaningful for me. What I really wanted to do was kind of capture this idea that one person's coming of age is another person's letting go. And I didn't want the character of the mother to fall neatly11 into a category of either an angel or a monster, which is generally what I think happens with mother characters in movies. And that's not what - how I see most mothers in the world.

I see most mothers doing their level best, making mistakes and trying to pick up and keep going. And I think I always wanted the audience to feel like - even when Lady Bird says the wrong thing or makes a mistake or her mother says the wrong thing or makes a mistake, I never wanted the audience to feel like these are bad people. It's that you can be a good person, and parenting is hard (laughter).

CORNISH: Well, Greta Gerwig, I know you said that this story only rhymes with the truth.

GERWIG: (Laughter).

CORNISH: But I can't help thinking, this is a pretty nice ending for "Lady Bird," right? Like, if Christine went to New York...

(LAUGHTER)

GERWIG: That's right. It's right.

CORNISH: This is not too shabby.

GERWIG: No, I know. It's been an extraordinary journey with this movie, and I'm very touched in so many ways that it's been recognized like this, not the least of which is because it's a movie about a young girl and her mother and, in some ways, an extraordinary year and, in other ways, the most normal year. And that it's being recognized as a story with importance is very meaningful, and I couldn't be more grateful.

CORNISH: Greta Gerwig is the writer and director of "Lady Bird." Thank you so much for speaking with us.

GERWIG: Thank you so much for having me on.

(SOUNDBITE OF JON BRION SONG, "TITLE CREDITS")

SHAPIRO: That was my co-host Audie Cornish talking with Greta Gerwig, who's nominated for Oscars for best director and best original screenplay.

(SOUNDBITE OF JON BRION SONG, "TITLE CREDITS")


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 nominees 3e8d8b25ccc8228c71eef17be7bb2d5f     
n.被提名者,被任命者( nominee的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • She's one of the nominees. 她是被提名者之一。 来自超越目标英语 第2册
  • A startling number of his nominees for senior positions have imploded. 他所提名的高级官员被否决的数目令人震惊。 来自互联网
2 byline sSXyQ     
n.署名;v.署名
参考例句:
  • His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
  • We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。
3 flexibility vjPxb     
n.柔韧性,弹性,(光的)折射性,灵活性
参考例句:
  • Her great strength lies in her flexibility.她的优势在于她灵活变通。
  • The flexibility of a man's muscles will lessen as he becomes old.人老了肌肉的柔韧性将降低。
4 titular wonwV     
adj.名义上的,有名无实的;n.只有名义(或头衔)的人
参考例句:
  • The Queen is titular head of the Church of England.英国女王是英国国教名义上的领袖。
  • He is titular head,and merely signs laws occasionally.他是名义上的首脑,不过偶尔签字批准法律法规。
5 personalities ylOzsg     
n. 诽谤,(对某人容貌、性格等所进行的)人身攻击; 人身攻击;人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • There seemed to be a degree of personalities in her remarks.她话里有些人身攻击的成分。
  • Personalities are not in good taste in general conversation.在一般的谈话中诽谤他人是不高尚的。
6 entity vo8xl     
n.实体,独立存在体,实际存在物
参考例句:
  • The country is no longer one political entity.这个国家不再是一个统一的政治实体了。
  • As a separate legal entity,the corporation must pay taxes.作为一个独立的法律实体,公司必须纳税。
7 narcissism 9FSxQ     
n.自我陶醉,自恋
参考例句:
  • Those who suffer from narcissism become self-absorbed.自恋的人会变得自私。
  • The collective narcissism of the Kerouac circle is ultimately boring.凯鲁亚克和他周围人物的集体自我陶醉欲最终使人厌烦不已。
8 memo 4oXzGj     
n.照会,备忘录;便笺;通知书;规章
参考例句:
  • Do you want me to send the memo out?您要我把这份备忘录分发出去吗?
  • Can you type a memo for me?您能帮我打一份备忘录吗?
9 intensity 45Ixd     
n.强烈,剧烈;强度;烈度
参考例句:
  • I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
  • The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。
10 shrill EEize     
adj.尖声的;刺耳的;v尖叫
参考例句:
  • Whistles began to shrill outside the barn.哨声开始在谷仓外面尖叫。
  • The shrill ringing of a bell broke up the card game on the cutter.刺耳的铃声打散了小汽艇的牌局。
11 neatly ynZzBp     
adv.整洁地,干净地,灵巧地,熟练地
参考例句:
  • Sailors know how to wind up a long rope neatly.水手们知道怎样把一条大绳利落地缠好。
  • The child's dress is neatly gathered at the neck.那孩子的衣服在领口处打着整齐的皱褶。

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