Greta Gerwig and Director Rebecca Miller Get Personal About New Film ‘Maggie’s Plan’

Sandra Miska

For her fifth feature “Maggie’s Plan,” filmmaker Rebecca Miller tells the story of an idealistic thirtysomething NYC woman, played by Greta Gerwig, who finds her plans of becoming a single mother via artificial insemination derailed when she falls in love with an older man (Ethan Hawke), which doesn’t sit well with his wife (Julianne Moore).

Miller and Gerwig recently opened up to Entertainment Voice about this incredibly witty film, their personal inspirations and why there aren’t more women directors and how this sad state of affairs can be changed.

Gerwig kicked things off by stating why “Maggie’s Plan” is such a special film. “What’s so great about this movie is it’s really a love story of adults. It’s really about the time when you’re trying to figure out how to make a family and what that looks like. I think what’s so fun about this movie is that it’s these three really smart, intellectual, capable people who find themselves powerless over love.”

During the interview, it came out that Ethan Hawke had never worked with a woman director before “Maggie’s Plan.” “I didn’t notice anything different about him. He seemed fine,” said Miller with a laugh. She went on to discuss how individuality counts for more than gender when it comes down to it. “I really have more in common with some men directors than I do with some women directors and some women directors I would have a lot in common with. I think of people as individuals.”

Like Maggie, Gerwig has had her own plans fall through. “I had a plan that I was going to go to graduate school for playwriting, but then I didn’t get in.”

After her grad school plans fell through, Gerwig focused on her acting career and got her start in the mumblecore scene, a style of naturalistic, low-budget films. Surprisingly, she draws inspiration from a flashier era. “Carole Lombard is my favorite lady of all the ladies. She’s just so funny and beautiful and can totally ride language in a ridiculous way that’s utterly satisfying. For me, the movie stars of the ‘30s and ‘40s, I think they all just had this feeling of using their whole bodies the whole time while they were acting, and I think that’s something that I always really responded to. Growing up, because I was a dancer, I was really interested in movie musicals more than anything – Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly films. [In] ‘Oklahoma,’ the Agnes de Mille choreography is amazing. I’ve liked that head to toe framing and it’s [how] I like to act and it’s what inspires me.  . . . I keep discovering new things about filmmaking that inspires me and actors [who] inspire me.”

Miller similarly draws inspiration from an era gone by. “For this film, I studied more of the ‘40s screwball comedies like ‘His Girl Friday,’ ‘The Philadelphia Story,’ all Preston Sturges movies.”

Perhaps the most inspiring woman is the fictional Maggie. “I did relate to Maggie, but I think, I don’t remember what we were talking about on the film [set], but I feel like what we would say a lot is how we wished we were more like Maggie in some ways,” stated Gerwig. “I mean, what I really love about her character is she has this unshakable commitment to her inner truth and her honesty, and she moves through the world without guilt. Guilt is not operative in her decision-making, which is very refreshing and it felt very liberating to play. I think in some ways what’s . . . gratifying as an actor is I feel like I get to take a little piece of the characters I’ve played with me. I can still kind of find a spot in my heart that feels like Maggie, and she never goes away. I guess I have never had to play any particularly monstrous characters, so that’s helpful.”

Next up, Gerwig will appear alongside a real woman she admires, gutsy comedian Mindy Kaling. “The truth is I just watched every single episode of ‘The Mindy Project,’ and I got her email and I wrote her an email saying, ‘I think you’re so charming and lovely and such a good role model.’ And then, like a year later, she said, ‘Do you want to come be on the show one day?’ I said, ‘Yes.’” Gerwig, who previously starred in an unaired pilot for a “How I Met Your Mother” spinoff called “How I Met Your Dad,” hasn’t ruled out possibly having her own television show in the future. “Maybe someday. I don’t know.”

Speaking of comedy, Miller, who is perhaps best known for her father/daughter drama “The Ballad of Jack and Rose,” never thought she’d make one. “I follow my nose. If I had been told 10 years ago that I was going to make a movie that was really a comedy, I would have been surprised.” Could making a film in Los Angeles be far behind? “If it feels natural and right and I could maintain the control that I need to in order to feel comfortable on set and I could get my collaborators, the best collaborators together to do it, then I might consider it. I would consider it.”

The conversation came back to Hollywood’s woman problem. “I think people are looking at people as women and not as individual people,” lamented Miller. “I think there are a lot of very capable directors who happen to be women, and I think they should be seen as such. I think that would help.”

Added Gerwig, “On some level it hadn’t occurred to me that I could be a director. I knew people directed. I knew that there were women who directed; it’s not like I didn’t know that it existed. But I think in the absence of any examples, it’s very hard to imagine yourself doing it . . . .  For me, it was all of a sudden, when I had been writing and producing things and I co-directed something, I was like, ‘Why has this not been something that you’ve thought about?’ For me, personally, I think a lack of examples is a giant part of it. I think it’s very hard to imagine something you can’t see. I don’t think of women directors as women directors. They’re directors. Rebecca’s a good director; she’s one of the great directors right now, period. But the example means something to me, and I think it does contribute to me wanting to do it. There’s some confluence of Kathryn Bigelow winning the Academy Award and then Rebecca.”

Gerwig ended with some invaluable advice to aspiring women auteurs. “This is something I think about a lot, I guess. I think so much of the learning curve with certain things start really young. I have noticed there are far more guys who say, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know how to work a camera. Let’s go make a movie.’ And women will say, ‘I can’t do it until I know everything and I’m sure about all this stuff.’ I feel like, those guys do not know more than you. You can go do this. And you will learn as you’re doing it. I feel like getting your hands dirty in that capacity early [on] is really important. Obviously, do what you love and if what you love is producing or what you love is acting or writing, do all those things. But if you have an inkling in you that you want to direct and you think you’re not ready, don’t worry about it. Just do it. That’s what I’d say.”

“Maggie’s Plan” opens May 20 in Los Angeles and New York with a national release to follow.