Greta Gerwig on Golden Globes nods: ‘There was a lot of screaming’

GRETA Gerwig promised herself she wouldn’t check her phone until she made herself a coffee. Then she saw her 36 text messages.

IT JUST nabbed four nominations at the Golden Globe awards but most Australians will not have heard of Lady Bird yet.

Unfortunately for us Antipodeans, Greta Gerwig’s brilliant and warm coming-of-age movie won’t hit Australian screens until February. But that just gives us more time to look forward to a movie that could, without hyperbole, be described as a transformative experience.

Lady Bird made headlines last week for dethroning Toy Story 3 as the record holder for the best reviewed movie on Rotten Tomatoes with a 100 per cent hit rate — though it has since been brought down to 99 per cent with a lone dissenting critic playing contrarian.

The mainstream success is a long-time coming for Gerwig, a darling of the indie film circle since she first gained traction in Joe Swanberg’s mumblecore flicks, before moving on to being the star and collaborator of three of Noah Baumbach’s films.

This is Gerwig’s moment. Without having to share a “co” credit, Gerwig wrote and directed the semi-autobiographical Lady Bird.

Today, the film picked up nominations for Best Comedy, Best Screenplay for Gerwig, Best Actress in a Comedy for Saoirse Ronan and Best Supporting Actress for Laurie Metcalf.

Greta Gerwig at the Gotham Independent Film Awards on where she picked up the Auteur Award. (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for IFP)

Talking to news.com.au on the phone from the US, Gerwig could barely contain her excitement.

“I feel amazing today, it’s so exciting, it’s a very exciting day,” she says. “It’s been extraordinary, from beginning to now. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had doing anything and I’m so grateful to everyone and what they put into it.

“That the world is reacting with so much love, it feels extraordinary. This is beyond my wildest dreams.

Gerwig says she was very aware the announcements were happening today and debated over whether she should wake up and watch it or just sleep and face the news in the morning.

She opted for the latter.

“I made myself the promise that I would make coffee before I looked at anything and I did. I made my coffee and then looked at my phone and saw I had 36 text messages so I thought, ‘I think something went very well’. Then there were a lot of screaming phone calls and excitement.”

Lady Bird is firming up as an awards season favourite. Pic: Universal Pictures.

The Golden Globe nods are off the back of an already successful awards season. Lady Bird has just won Best Film at New York Film Critics Circle Awards with Ronan also picking up Best Actress. Ronan picked up a gong at the Gotham Awards while Gerwig was named Best Director by the National Board of Review and won the Auteur Award at the Satellite Awards.

Lady Bird was among the American Film Institute’s top 10 for 2017 and Metcalf, who’s picked up a swag of gongs, is firming up as the favourite in the Best Supporting Actress race for the Oscars.

It’s bound to take home a few accolades from the Critic’s Choice Awards and the Independent Spirit Awards. Nominations for the big prizes — the various guild awards and the Oscars — are still coming.

Facing the months-long, sometimes-gruelling awards circuit has had many upsides for Gerwig.

“It’s amazing because I get to Saoirse and Laurie again and I get to spend time with them, it’s so much fun,” she says.

“And then I get to spend time with all these directors I admire so much and I get to talk to them and talk shop about how they make films and how I made the film. It’s getting to hang out with my idols.”

Lady Bird is in cinemas on February 15, 2018.

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