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 That is the line that popped into actor and
filmmaker Greta Gerwig's head one day and went on to become the
opening statement from the precocious teenage heroine of her
directorial debut, "Lady Bird."
"Lady Bird, in a way, wrote herself," Gerwig told Reuters on
Sunday.
"I was like, 'Who is this girl, who's this girl who makes
(people) call her by a different name?' It's one of those things
where it's like I discovered the character as I was writing."
The titular character, played by Saoirse Ronan, is a teenage
girl growing up "on the wrong side of the tracks" in Sacramento,
California, attending Catholic school and wrestling with her
identity as she figures out life after graduating from high
school.
"I wanted to make a movie that was about home, and how home is
something you only understand when you're leaving," said Gerwig,
who grew up in Sacramento and pens a love letter to her home
town in "Lady Bird."
The film, which opened in limited theaters last week and will
roll out in more U.S. theaters this month, marks the solo
directing debut of Gerwig, 34. She carved a career co-writing
and starring in independent darlings such as 2010's "Greenberg"
and 2012's "Frances Ha."
"Lady Bird" has already garnered critical praise and early
awards buzz.
"She just has this unique lens of seeing the world," actor
Beanie Feldstein, who plays Lady Bird's best friend Julie, said
of Gerwig. "It makes so much sense that she were to direct
because that lens has always existed in her acting and in her
writing."
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In "Lady Bird," Gerwig explores the complexities of her heroine's
various relationships, from her frustrations living in a
cash-strapped home to the endearing connection with Julie and the
innocence of her first love.
Gerwig said she wanted to reflect a "kaleidoscope of people" in Lady
Bird's life because "when she leaves, you have to feel like she's
really leaving an entire community."
But at the core is Lady Bird's evolving relationship with her
mother, played by Laurie Metcalf, from explosive arguments and
hurtful words to tender moments and a mutual desire to live up to
each other's expectations.
"There aren't that many movies about the mother-daughter
relationship and it's such a rich, beautiful, complicated thing,"
Gerwig said.
"I just was like, 'Everybody's got a mother so why aren't there more
things about this?'"
(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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