--- title: Greta Gerwig on How She Chooses Projects That Excite Her description: Filmmaker Greta Gerwig spoke about her creative process and reflected on this moment of her life at the 2024 TIME Woman of the Year gala. canonical: https://time.com/collections/women-of-the-year/6802100/greta-gerwig-projects-undertow-interview/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-03-06T07:25:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-11T07:46:27.290Z article:section: World og:title: Greta Gerwig on How She Chooses Projects That Excite Her og:description: Filmmaker Greta Gerwig spoke about her creative process and reflected on this moment of her life at the 2024 TIME Woman of the Year gala. og:url: https://time.com/collections/women-of-the-year/6802100/greta-gerwig-projects-undertow-interview/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa52ecdbbe843067/698a492016d8843d76c3d457/greta-gerwig-woty-interview-time.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Greta Gerwig on How She Chooses Projects That Excite Her og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Greta Gerwig on How She Chooses Projects That Excite Her twitter:description: Filmmaker Greta Gerwig spoke about her creative process and reflected on this moment of her life at the 2024 TIME Woman of the Year gala. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa52ecdbbe843067/698a492016d8843d76c3d457/greta-gerwig-woty-interview-time.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Mar 06, 2024 # Greta Gerwig on How She Chooses Projects That Excite Her > Sponsored content. 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For writer, director, and actress Greta Gerwig, the excitement of a project comes in taking on a film with an “element of adventure.” “A great thrill that I get is figuring out how to build my wings on the way down, just kind of leaping from the tallest thing I can find,” Gerwig said during an interview with TIME senior editor Lucy Feldman at the 2024 TIME Women of the Year gala in West Hollywood on Tuesday. Gerwig is one of 12 women recognized this year for their contributions to building a more equal world._ by [Solcyré Burga](https://time.com/author/solcyre-burga/) ## Solcyré Burga Reporter  Greta Gerwig speaks during TIME Women of the Year 2024 in West Hollywood on March 5, 2024. Greta Gerwig speaks during TIME Women of the Year 2024 in West Hollywood on March 5, 2024. Kevin Mazur—Getty Images for TIME For writer, director, and actress [Greta Gerwig](https://time.com/collection/women-of-the-year/6692799/greta-gerwig-interview/), the excitement of a project comes in taking on a film with an “element of adventure.” “A great thrill that I get is figuring out how to build my wings on the way down, just kind of leaping from the tallest thing I can find,” Gerwig said during an interview with TIME senior editor Lucy Feldman at the 2024 TIME Women of the Year gala in West Hollywood on Tuesday. Gerwig is one of [12 women recognized](https://time.com/collection/women-of-the-year/) this year for their contributions to building a more equal world.  Greta Gerwig and TIME senior editor Lucy Feldman speak onstage during TIME Women of the Year 2024. Kevin Mazur—Getty Images for TIME The 40-year-old [director](https://time.com/5180697/how-greta-gerwig-is-leading-by-example/) became the first person to have her first three solo feature films—[_Lady Bird_](https://time.com/5006939/lady-bird-captures-joy-pain-coming-of-age/), [_Little Women_](https://time.com/5754484/little-women-review/), and [_Barbie_](https://time.com/6289864/barbie-time-cover-story/)—each nominated for “Best Picture” at the Academy Awards. The key to a Gerwig film, she says, has to do with her decision to take on ambitious projects, a topic which she expounded on before discussing the possibility of a _Barbie_ sequel. “Sometimes, because I write and direct, I write things that I genuinely sit back and think, ‘I have no idea how I’m actually going to accomplish that.’ And that’s actually the most exciting feeling. Because then you can gather people— gather your designers, your heads of departments—and everybody kind of figures out something that’s never been done before. And that’s thrilling.” Gerwig’s latest blockbuster film, _Barbie_, is [nominated for eight Oscars](https://time.com/6576771/ryan-gosling-oscar-nominations-barbie-statement-gerwig-robbie-ferrera/) and [broke box-office records](https://time.com/6304654/barbie-box-office-biggest-movie-2023/), with its summer 2023 theatrical release grossing at least $1.4 billion worldwide. Gerwig said that when she works on a film she has to find an “undertow.” For _Barbie_, the undertow was the intergenerational struggle behind the doll. “I remember going to Toys R Us and looking at the Barbies, and I loved their hair. And I loved everything about them. And my mom was not sure about it. And I thought that’s the story,” Gerwig says. A sequel to the film would be dependent on her finding a similar element. Gerwig remains tight-lipped about how that dynamic will manifest in her forthcoming adaptation of the _Chronicles of Narnia_—“that’s just for me,” she jokingly says—but does share that it would be an honor to work with the _Barbie_ cast and crew again. For now, she says she’s choosing to focus on the other joys in life, monumentally her family, but also more trivial matters. When asked what she wants her future self to remember about this moment in her life, Gerwig said, “I hope that the thing I remember is how amazing and fun it is,” before adding, “and how—and this sounds totally superficial but you know, when you go to these events and you put on clothes and part of me is like, ‘I don’t know’—I looked great.” “That’s sort of a hard thing to feel all the time, and I think when I’m 80, I’ll be like, ‘Look at you! You’re 40! You look wonderful.’” _TIME Women of the Year was sponsored by P&G, Rolex, Ray Ban-Meta, Donna Karan New York, FIJI Water, Campari, and Mattel._ ## Transcript I am in awe of the extraordinary women that we have gathered here tonight. And really I can think of no better way to start than with the one and only Greta Gerwig. You might have heard of a little Phil she made it was called Barbie. Barbie was invented. Creeping up on you. I'll just finish my intro with you. Yeah, this is going well already. But you know, it's high it's good. Everybody should know with this year's Academy Awards Greta has made history as the first director to have their first three solo films nominated for best picture at the Oscars. And as she discussed with my colleagues profile of The Chronicles of Narnia. I'm so sorry. I messed up your timing. I'm sorry. So happy that you're here in whatever timing works for you. Let's start with that incredible Oscars history-making Steve's first director to have their first three solo movies nominated for best picture. What do you make of what does that mean to you? Films that made and I think I was actually just talking about this with Sam at the table. I think one of the things about the gills and the economy and the different branches in the academy is filmmaking is such a it's a crafts passed from person to person and there's a community that Springs up around being part of a union and also being recognized by your peers and Be there to guide you do whatever the next step is you want to do? And I I found it a greatest part of being recognized by the academy. Is that community of some anchors? I love that community. And I wanted to ask you in terms of paying it forward. We're here celebrating women who have achieved amazing things. Are there any women in filmmaking who you are particularly excited about work? You want to call the person the filming of the time I love right now is that Italian? She's just great and her movies are great and you'll love them to come watch them and make me so happy when I saw it and I was euphoric we happy it was a it was a movie that could have only been made by her and she's terrific and you know what? I think I go to the movies all the time and they always hope that the thing I see is like a film that only she could make what is a Greta Gerwig felt because it feels like getting more ambitious bigger swings. I need I think it's a great thrill that I get is. Kind of figuring out how to build my wings on the way down. Just kind of leaving from the tallest thing. I can find if they it's if it is, I believe the skills that I need as I go and I hope to make all different kinds of movies in my career big and small, but I think they always have to have that element of Adventure because it's the way I get my kicks perfect project been for you to be working on that. I have no idea how much I actually do that and feeling as if departments and everybody kind of figures out something that's never been done before and that's thrilling when you're adapting. Do you study those books? It meant so much to me and then it also has been realised in films. So beautifully so many different times that it away with Little Women. I felt like I wasn't Adopting the text. I was sort of adapting the earlier texts of all of the movies and I felt it. Also I was trying to take into account who Louisa May Alcott was in the thing that I have coming back to this is a picture of Barbie and it's true lady bird of France as hard as a writer. It's always helpful for me to continually remind myself of the thing that I'm deeply interested in an example with Little Women, Louisa, May, Alcott. So smart and no one was doing that and she made so much money but a little better and so she said don't worry. That's that's what you're interested in and I think I always try to keep in Northstar of the my northstars. What do I need with love? What do I really care about? Like once this story underneath the story. I left their hair and I love everything about them that my mom was not sure about it. the generationals Trying to find those under toes. Would you care to tell us what that story is for Narnia? but I do have well, you'll see. 0 to 100% What is the likelihood that we get a farm to school? almost then we get it. There's no more. 0 to 100% I mean if it's something that I I loved making so much and I love the world that we built so much and all of the actors and have them. The idea of getting to be with that group of people again is very exciting. It is a movie that brought so many of us experience of it. But also the jokes like they live on the weather in Labadee. Oh, well, I have to say it's a sound so egotistical but when I was there was driving through Century City and I laugh at my own jokes when you get out of your car. And I'm sick of being so much still. No one ever said that. Joy, and levity if I just asked him any question and just watched his brain go. It's very joyful. We're all living in this world where we're constantly looking for what comes next. I think it's hard for a lot of us to pause and kind of appreciate what we've already achieved what we already have special somebody's asking you from 0 to 100. You want your few? about I think I'm I think so much. I hope that the thing I remember is some. the amazing and fun it is and how it sounds totally superficial. But you know, when you go to these events and you put on clothes and part of me is like, I don't know. That's the sort of hard thing to feel all the time. And I think when I'm 80, I'll be like to look at you. What you do and so does everyone thank you so much. 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