Barbie | The Process
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00:00 Hi everyone, welcome back to The Process.
00:06 Today for Warner Bros.
00:07 Historic Box Office Smash Barbie, we have co-writer, director, and executive producer
00:11 Greta Gerwig and the editor who's been with her since Lady Bird, Nick Hui.
00:23 I guess I'd start with like, when you first read it, did you think that the mood, what
00:31 did you think?
00:34 No leading the question.
00:37 I thought it was amazing, obviously.
00:38 I remember we both were like, what the hell?
00:41 How is this possible that you wrote this?
00:44 It's so amazing.
00:45 You and Noah both like came up with this idea completely originally.
00:49 Like I don't know how you did it.
00:51 I mean, I know it was a lot of pandemic insanity, but it was so beautiful.
00:56 And then I remember just being like, will they let you make it?
00:59 There's no way they'll let you make it.
01:01 I remember you saying that.
01:03 Sorry, I wasn't meaning to be discouraging.
01:05 It was more like, I really hope that we get to make this.
01:09 Yeah, no, no.
01:10 I remember you being like, how do they, they won't know about this.
01:20 It's surprising still to me that they did it, but obviously it worked out for them.
01:26 Same.
01:27 It's still surprising to me that it exists.
01:30 So I guess, I feel like we were really, I mean, we've worked together three times.
01:35 So it's like, I mean, we have both like a shorthand, but also every project is its own
01:44 problem.
01:45 I mean, we were obviously in communication the whole time while we were shooting.
01:52 But I mean, from your end, getting all of the footage, sitting there, were you like,
01:58 oh, this is what it looks like?
02:00 Or I mean, how was that?
02:02 I wasn't with you during that.
02:04 It's so crazy because you were on set and like sending me like, we will not believe
02:08 this set.
02:09 That's the most beautiful set, the way we're lighting it, everything is amazing.
02:13 And then when I saw the footage, it was like ridiculous.
02:16 I was just telling Matt, it's like most things that you work on, I've been lucky that it's
02:21 always great.
02:22 But this, you're like sitting down with a bowl of popcorn to watch the dailies.
02:25 Like I cannot wait to watch every single take.
02:28 Like I am so excited by everything that's coming in.
02:31 And that's rare to just be like, I would go to sleep, like really excited to see the dailies
02:37 in the morning, you know?
02:38 And that's all you can hope for.
02:40 And there was moments where like, you know, the 360 shot on the beach of Ryan, I think
02:45 I texted, we were always texting funny things, but I was like, this might be the greatest
02:50 thing ever captured on a moving camera.
02:53 I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
02:55 No, it was, I couldn't believe, I felt so, it's funny because I feel like everything
03:01 I've ever made feels personal, but in different ways.
03:05 But there was something about that sequence that I felt extremely exposed by.
03:10 And I was like, this is in some ways, my truest self is like, you know, a ridiculous beach
03:17 battle into a dream ballet.
03:19 Like that is the inside of my soul.
03:23 But I think, I think it's something we, I was actually going back to like the beginning
03:29 is, it was the most extensive work I'd ever done with like a storyboard artist too.
03:35 So I actually was able to share storyboards early and we were sort of able to talk through
03:40 some of that, which I was, it's funny because I feel like storyboards are extremely helpful
03:45 and also not a movie.
03:48 Exactly.
03:49 Exactly.
03:50 It's an interesting process.
03:51 Had you ever worked with that many storyboards?
03:54 Really?
03:55 We had done it on Little Women for the ice skating sequence.
03:59 Yeah.
04:00 And that was really helpful for that.
04:02 And I remember being like, oh, this is great.
04:03 And then a lot of things I've worked on, yeah, have had extensive storyboards, especially
04:09 for additional photography.
04:11 But this was the most I'd ever done way, way pre-production.
04:15 So there was multiple versions of it and really changed a lot.
04:18 And that was great because it was like, you were able to get ahead of any potential things
04:23 that were in the way of the story, which is amazing.
04:26 Because that's all you're ever battling really is like, what is the story?
04:29 What's the tone?
04:30 And making sure that we find that, you know?
04:33 And have the pieces to do that.
04:36 That's the most important thing.
04:37 Yes.
04:38 What was the first scene you cut?
04:39 Oh, God.
04:40 I don't remember.
04:41 Well, I remember one of the first things.
04:44 Oh, sorry.
04:45 Was it waking up?
04:47 It was the first scene that we shot was just the waking up.
04:49 Probably.
04:50 We were texting like, oh, do we need a side angle and stuff?
04:52 I remember that.
04:53 Yeah.
04:54 Yeah.
04:55 It was just like, yeah, piecing together that opening was the first thing that we worked
05:00 on.
05:01 Right.
05:02 Yeah.
05:03 And then we shot the whole sort of like, wake up whole sequence.
05:08 But it almost felt like we were shooting a silent film because there was no dialogue.
05:11 So for the first week, nobody said anything, which was also strange because this has got
05:16 a lot of words, this movie.
05:19 But we started at a very like, it was just quiet.
05:22 Yeah.
05:23 So we were just talking about like, what music to use.
05:26 Yes.
05:27 We were talking about what music and what would capture it.
05:30 I feel like with any movie, there's always like a moment with an actor or with a production
05:37 designer or with anyone you're collaborating with where like something will happen where
05:42 you'll say, ah, yes, not only do they understand it, they understand it maybe more in a good
05:49 way.
05:50 Like they've taken the understanding I have and then added their own thing to it.
05:55 And I think that the first thing for me that I looked at, there's like a couple things,
06:03 the depressed Barbie commercial.
06:04 Yeah.
06:05 I remember when you sent that to me, it was like, that's it.
06:09 That's right.
06:11 Whatever is in that is the correct tone and feel.
06:15 That's exactly what I mean.
06:17 But it's better than that.
06:19 And actually, I think another thing that was a big sort of tonal thing that I felt like
06:24 was a tool while we were making it, but also to kind of put the cast and the crew and everyone
06:30 to kind of feel it was Nick would make every two to three weeks like a little, it was like
06:38 kind of a compressed watching dailies thing, kind of like the best of it.
06:44 There were these just incredibly pleasurable little movies of just a footage and things
06:51 cut together or just shown.
06:53 So, and what was really helpful about it was, I guess, two and a half, three weeks into
06:58 it, I was able to sit down with the whole cast and crew and screen it for them.
07:02 And then they were like, well, this is what we're making.
07:05 It's almost like, and that was also another big thing where I felt like you were already
07:09 starting to use the music of Mark and Andrew.
07:12 You were already starting to work everything in so that there was a feeling that was captured
07:20 it right away.
07:21 I knew we were all making the same thing.
07:24 Yeah, that was really useful.
07:25 We should do that always.
07:26 Cause it's like nowadays no one sits in a theater and all watches dailies together.
07:31 And that was kind of what we did is I would, and it was fun for me to be finding the tone
07:37 with selects and like putting music to it and like putting in little outtakes also like
07:41 in between scenes and stuff.
07:43 Remember that?
07:44 And so, and I would like be able to say like, what did you think?
07:48 Did you think that was funny?
07:50 Or like somebody would say to me, like the entire room was laughing at that one thing
07:54 that you did.
07:55 I'm no longer on tiptoes.
07:57 That's okay.
07:58 Let me see.
07:59 Flat feet!
08:00 And so I'd be like, oh, I'm finding the tone and what's working on audiences during
08:13 dailies, like just looking at dailies.
08:16 So that was super helpful.
08:17 That's true.
08:18 That's like our modern version of doing that.
08:19 Yeah.
08:20 And I've always liked the idea of doing dailies, but I think doing, I've, I heard like Tarantino
08:25 screens them for everyone and everyone watches it, which sounds really great.
08:29 But I think on most movies, everybody's exhausted, you know, but like having them like a Friday
08:38 afternoon at lunch to be able to screen things for people so that they can see like what
08:44 this is.
08:45 And it also informs things going forward because it like gives you a feedback loop.
08:52 It's not like a black box recording.
08:54 It's like, this is what it's feeling like.
08:56 And that was extremely helpful.
09:00 Once a week, special daily screening, like supercharged daily screening.
09:07 Also, it was helpful for later when like I had people come in, like when Dua Lipa shot
09:16 and John Cena, that was late in the schedule.
09:20 And I was able to show them a few of those and just be like, this is kind of the vibe.
09:26 And they were like, oh, you know, it's almost like a trailer.
09:28 Yeah.
09:29 Yeah.
09:30 It was like a way to, because I think coming into a movie that's already in progress can
09:35 sometimes be like, I don't even, I'm just here for one or two days.
09:39 I don't know what's going on.
09:40 And it was like a way to kind of absorb the whole of it, which was great.
09:47 Biggest overall challenges.
09:48 I know the answer is still a lot of space.
09:51 What would you describe as the biggest overall challenge?
09:55 Finding the tone and making it, we hit it pretty early.
09:58 And I remember things like people like Ryan on set sort of saying like, whoa, the tone
10:02 is really strong.
10:05 And that was in my opinion, like I agreed and we were finding it really early and quickly.
10:11 But then, you know, that's different than when you're actually in the director's cut
10:18 and you're really getting hard on the tone and you're really making sure that it's 100%
10:25 all A+ material and serving the story and the tone.
10:29 And so all the shifts in tone in the script and in the footage, wrangling that so it all
10:36 felt like one thing was the biggest challenge that we had.
10:39 I think you'd agree probably.
10:41 This movie has like really serious moments and really huge comedy moments and blending
10:49 those two things in a way that doesn't feel like whiplash to the audience.
10:54 Yeah, tone, story, character are all like iterations of the same thing.
10:59 And it was also kind of, I think the challenge was the object that is Barbie doesn't have
11:06 a character or a story.
11:09 So that's all invented.
11:11 And then figuring out what is the language and the pace and the way that we're communicating
11:21 this so that they are, even though they're imaginary, that you care about them.
11:29 And imaginary and they're heightened and it's a comedy, but also like that was, that took
11:37 some figuring.
11:40 It seems so obvious now.
11:41 That's a problem with movies is once you get to the end of it, you're like, well, of course
11:44 it's that way.
11:45 But in the middle of it, it just feels like it's not clear.
11:50 Yeah, we knew where we wanted to be and that was where we ended up.
11:54 But getting there, it's like we were trying to do so many things in this movie, like so
11:59 many things at once.
12:00 And we did it.
12:01 And I feel very proud of that.
12:03 For sure.
12:04 I remember, I mean, I feel like I'm a big believer in like saying the thing you want, even if
12:12 it's like whatever it is, like, what I want is for people to cry at this movie and realize
12:19 that they're crying and say, how am I crying at a Barbie movie?
12:24 That's a really hard thing to achieve.
12:26 But I was like, well, we might as well just say what we mean.
12:29 I also think like one thing you always ask people when we show it to, once we have a
12:35 cut that we're kind of working on and showing people as you, I think a question you ask,
12:41 which I think is really useful is when were you in?
12:48 When were you like, I'm in?
12:49 Because movies are sort of like dreams like that.
12:52 You don't really realize when.
12:55 And it's, and as we say, small changes can make huge differences.
13:01 It's so much time and it's so much effort.
13:02 But at the end of the day, it's less than two hours.
13:05 So everything is very calibrated and one thing tipped in a direction.
13:13 It's this strange house of cards and it's, you know, but it's, it's almost like, where
13:19 do you even start?
13:20 For sure.
13:21 Yeah.
13:22 Tell me about like some of those early conversations that you had with Margot and Noah as well.
13:29 Well, Margot gave sort of, I mean, I guess the first thing was just she, I liked, I liked
13:36 her so much as an actor and then I kind of got to know her a little bit as a producer
13:39 and I really thought she was great.
13:42 And she came to me and said, Oh, I have Barbie to develop some, you know, and, and do you
13:51 want to write it?
13:52 And I said, yes.
13:55 And then I said, I always had an idea that Noah would write it with me because we hadn't
13:59 written together for a while.
14:00 And I love writing together because it's just so fun.
14:05 And it's, he's like my favorite person to make laugh.
14:11 And he wasn't sure we should do it.
14:13 He was, he was sort of like, he was like, are we doing it?
14:17 Are you talking to her about it?
14:18 And I, I kind of backed us into it.
14:21 Like I often do.
14:22 I was like, well, you know, and then he actually found the text from like 20, fall of 2019
14:31 that said like, I guess we're directing this movie.
14:35 Read about it in Variety or something.
14:37 And I was like, yeah, yeah, no, we're, we're, we're writing this movie.
14:44 But I think the biggest thing was that like, I, I knew just, I mean, having edited my movies,
14:51 the main thing was like just creating an environment where we could be left alone to write whatever
14:55 we wanted because I don't outline and I don't do treatments.
14:58 I, I sort of, it's not the way I work or think best.
15:04 I mean, I, I probably, you know, I do hundreds of drafts, but I work at them differently
15:11 in a way I think even in an editing sense, but you can answer this.
15:14 They're sort of hard to take apart because they're, they're not, they're not modular.
15:21 They're it's all the whole thing's grown together.
15:23 So when you start to try to take apart, you're like, oh no, actually this connects.
15:28 Oh, because it's not, I don't know any other way to say it.
15:32 It's like an organism.
15:33 Yeah.
15:34 That's why they work so well too.
15:35 I feel like it's all leading to something.
15:37 Yeah.
15:38 It's really built, you know, to stand, which is great.
15:42 But that's actually one of the reasons, like one of the questions I saw you, you were meant
15:47 to ask me, it's like, why, why did we, why did we work together on Lady Bird?
15:53 And it was because there was a, well, I mean, it was, I just connected with you right away,
15:58 but then I remember I was in pre-production for that and there was, you know, everyone
16:03 in pre-production is always looking for cuts, you know, because movies are expensive and
16:08 they're like, you could cut this.
16:10 And there was a sequence, you know, it was said, well, maybe you cut this.
16:13 And I wrote you and I said, what do you think?
16:16 Should we cut this?
16:17 And you wrote back a long, really thoughtful response.
16:20 And you were like, no, because, and you had this whole, you had this whole reason.
16:25 And I was like, oh, he understands, yes, that's right.
16:29 And that's what you need out of collaborators is people to remind you like what it was you
16:33 were trying to do, because sometimes in the thick of it, you can't remember.
16:36 And you're like, maybe cut it, I don't know.
16:39 And you want somebody who was like, no, no, you don't want to cut it.
16:42 Yeah.
16:43 The reason for it being there in the first place.
16:45 And it doesn't mean that there aren't things that you should cut sometimes and that you
16:48 got to look at that with open eyes.
16:50 But I remember like, it's also like what's cool about making movies or telling any kind
16:56 of story is that you're sharing your idea of what it should be.
17:00 And there's going to be all these different people that respond to it in their own way
17:03 also.
17:05 And so if you're open to those people, like connecting with it and responding in their
17:09 own way, and maybe that can bring it to another level too.
17:12 Like that's one of the things that you're really great at also is, is like literally
17:18 giving everyone their own space to do those things and bring their own things to it.
17:23 Like that's actually unusual.
17:25 Like you do it really beautifully.
17:26 So thank you for that.
17:28 You got a bunch of smart people.
17:29 I feel like, I don't know.
17:31 I love being able to, I mean, I always think about it.
17:34 I mean, it happens a lot in editorial because it was such a great group that it was, you
17:39 know, I mean, Noah was in the editing room a lot, but it was also like Nick and Maya
17:46 and Gloria.
17:47 And then like, I love being able to turn to people and like, what do you think?
17:50 What do you think is the best one?
17:53 And they're totally honest and great.
17:55 Yeah.
17:56 And they'll just give you exactly what they think.
17:58 And it's like when you kind of have a trust with the community that's making it in post,
18:05 it feels very good.
18:08 We had a magical team on this.
18:10 It was amazing all the way throughout from pre-production through the end.
18:15 It was like the best people.
18:17 We got really lucky.
18:18 It's amazing.
18:19 What's your favorite thing about being an editor and editing?
18:23 Like what do you, what is it like?
18:25 How did you know that editing was what you wanted to do in film?
18:28 It's funny.
18:29 I already had a conversation about this with somebody this morning, weirdly.
18:32 It's like, I don't know why it's like for me, it's the, that's where the movie's made.
18:37 Like when I'm on set, like it's cool to be on set and stuff, but like it feels far from
18:42 the movie, weirdly.
18:43 You might be able to relate to it, but to me, like once I have the pieces in front of
18:48 me, I can make it whatever I want, which is great.
18:51 Whereas when you're on set, it's like your hands are tied.
18:53 Like you're just, you're dealing with what's on set and trying to make it exciting and
18:57 interesting and you're really good at that.
18:59 But it's like, I feel like I'm not really working on the movie.
19:03 It's weird for me personally, when I'm there, I'm like, okay, well let's get this finished
19:07 so that we can work on the movie.
19:11 And so like, I have to have it in front of me, like with all the pieces or at least some
19:16 of the pieces and start saying like, oh, we could add this line, we could take away this
19:20 line, we could move this here.
19:21 We should do this with the transition into this scene or lose a scene.
19:24 Like then I feel like I'm actually working on it.
19:26 So I think even if I was directing or writing or whatever, I'd be like, oh, well once we're
19:30 in post, then we can really make the movie.
19:32 I was talking to a director friend of mine who was like, that he was like, post is your
19:38 reward.
19:39 Right.
19:40 And I was like, oh, I just want to get to post.
19:41 We just want to get to post.
19:42 It's like, and they were saying sort of like the older I get, the more I'm like, let's
19:49 just get to the editing room.
19:51 Right.
19:52 And it's sort of like writing in that way where you can just like sit down and work
19:54 on the story.
19:55 Yeah.
19:56 You just work on the story.
19:57 Yeah.
19:58 I think there's always, I mean, I like sort of all aspects of it.
20:04 I think it's, I kind of like it from beginning to end and I like how each kind of moment
20:10 of filmmaking has a different requirement of you.
20:16 And a different reward sort of.
20:17 And a different reward.
20:19 But it's true that when you're the editor, you are interacting with what the thing becomes.
20:26 Hello.
20:27 Humans.
20:28 And Ellen.
20:29 Come into my weird house.
20:32 Hi.
20:33 I'm weird Barbie.
20:34 I am in the splits.
20:35 I have a funky haircut and I smell like basement.
20:36 Oh my God.
20:37 I had a weird Barbie.
20:38 Yeah, you did.
20:39 You make them weird by playing too hard.
20:40 It's cool.
20:41 What are new tools in your toolkit after working with Bob Dyche?
20:49 I mean, weirdly people have asked me like, was it weird to cut a musical sequence?
20:55 And it felt like so natural.
20:57 I don't know.
20:58 Maybe because we've always talked about musicals and the way we cut is kind of, we talk about
21:02 the rhythm so much, like the pacing and the rhythm and the beat of the scene is so important
21:09 to us that it just felt totally natural.
21:12 The simple answer is like, I definitely feel like choreographed musical sequences now,
21:16 I feel even more naturally ready and excited to do them.
21:22 Like musical movies of any kind, I'm very excited by now.
21:25 And I always have been, but like even more so.
21:28 You and this film definitely showed me and everyone what's possible with something that's
21:34 kind of like IP that you wouldn't expect anything from.
21:38 It's Barbie.
21:40 But you can make anything amazing and interesting if you just have the gall to do it and to
21:47 go for it.
21:48 And we just went for it.
21:49 And so I think that's a cool thing to remember is it can be anything you want it to be and
21:53 you should make it unique and special to you.
21:57 Everyone out there listening, that's the big lesson is like, whatever it is, you can make
22:02 it whatever you want it to be.
22:03 And that's actually what's required of you is to make it what you want it to be and make
22:07 it interesting to you.
22:09 Because there was times where we were doing a sequence and we're like, no one else is
22:13 going to like this because it's so crazy.
22:15 But we love it and we're cracking up, crying, laughing.
22:18 Hey Barbie.
22:19 Yeah.
22:20 Can I come to your house tonight?
22:21 Sure.
22:22 I don't have anything big planned, just a giant blowout party with all the Barbies and
22:24 planned choreography and a bespoke song.
22:26 You should stop by.
22:27 So cool.
22:28 Right.
22:29 So then we're like, well, I guess follow that.
22:32 I mean, there's things you feel right away from it.
22:35 And then there's also things where, especially with comedies, where I had forgotten that
22:41 some of the jokes were funny because they were meaningless to me.
22:47 They meant nothing to me.
22:49 And then, you know, you're sitting in an audience, everybody's laughing and you're like, oh,
22:53 right.
22:54 No, this is funny.
22:55 But it's almost like you hadn't taken that into account.
22:59 So it's almost like you have to enter that dialogue.
23:01 I always feel like the most interesting point to me in a movie, it's like you get the movie
23:08 in a place where it's like, I think I said to you, it's like, well, you can watch it
23:14 from beginning to end and you don't want to like stab your eyes out.
23:17 You're like, you're like, you know, like, you know, like you don't feel like, and then
23:24 you kind of refine it from there.
23:25 And then it starts feeling kind of good, which is like you get it to that place about before
23:31 you show it to people.
23:34 And then it goes through this weird transformation.
23:37 So you get it to a place where it makes you feel OK.
23:40 And you feel like, all right.
23:43 And you sort of falsely have a moment where you're like, maybe this is pretty good.
23:50 Let's just release it.
23:51 Yeah.
23:52 And then you start deeply understanding that the movie now will belong to the audience.
24:04 So it's their experience.
24:06 Like it's almost like you transfer your consciousness.
24:09 I try to do that even while I'm watching dailies.
24:13 Yeah.
24:14 I try to get ahead of that and do that.
24:16 And I think that's important to do is to always be thinking as an audience member.
24:20 But you also have to trust your gut.
24:22 So then when you put it in front of an audience and you feel good about it and you think that
24:26 the audience will too.
24:28 And then but that's the most exciting part for me is when you're at that stage, you're
24:32 like, OK, now I actually just need like a consensus of like, is that scene working that
24:37 I'm a little on the fence about?
24:39 Or is this performance like is it tracking the whole way?
24:44 And things like that where you start to get granular or even bigger arching things and
24:49 saying like, does everyone else agree with me or not in these ways?
24:53 And how can I utilize that?
24:55 Because sometimes you still have to know that you're right, even if other people even have
24:59 other feelings.
25:00 Yeah.
25:01 So but it's important to get an idea of like.
25:05 Any blind spots, you know, that's a big way.
25:08 I guess that's what I mean is like it's like I mean, I'm obviously thinking about the audience
25:12 deeply being able to be like.
25:16 The fact that I'm happy with it is, you know, baseline now, like let's make it like the
25:23 best it can be, best like let's cut this diamond as fine as it can be in a way.
25:30 I feel like you could tell me if you think this is right.
25:34 I think in essence, the movie we have.
25:38 The movie that the movie became, you'll know that we did sort of two friends and families
25:44 at the same the same week.
25:47 And the movie evolved after that.
25:50 But I think its core actually, that is the movie.
25:54 That's the movie.
25:55 Totally.
25:56 I would agree with that.
25:57 And that's that's saying a lot like getting to a place where you're like, this is basically
26:01 the movie is huge.
26:03 But what I think.
26:04 But then you then you realize that the small thing, 15 percent changes is everything.
26:12 And that's what sets you apart from a lot of.
26:16 Storytellers I would say is that you and I feel similarly is I'm not satisfied with that.
26:23 I want it to be ninety nine point nine percent.
26:25 I don't know if anything's over 100, but like I will.
26:29 Old man, no country for old man is the only one that's 100 percent perfect.
26:32 I really want to be ninety nine point nine and I will work tirelessly to get there.
26:37 And I feel like you feel the same way, like never satisfied, really.
26:40 Even if you feel like you say like this pretty much is the movie, but I want to get it as
26:45 close to perfect as possible.
26:47 But it's interesting, like the sort of like core of it is like.
26:51 But then after that, then there were like a million iterations of working on it.
26:57 And, you know, it was like it wasn't at all like I mean, it was.
27:02 Relentless, quiet, relentless amounts of efforts that.
27:10 But it is it's funny, you can you can make something that essentially feels like, yeah,
27:14 that's that's the DNA of it is the same.
27:18 Yeah.
27:19 And still have so much.
27:20 And there's always that painful moment where you feel like in that effort that you make
27:27 it worse.
27:28 And that feels terrible.
27:31 You have to know that that's part of you have to try it.
27:34 Yeah.
27:35 Yeah.
27:36 Two steps forward, one step back.
27:37 I actually think that that's like an important thing.
27:39 I think that's true.
27:40 I think writing and editing are such similar things in a way.
27:44 And I think that that's something to remember, like if anyone who's making movies is watching
27:49 this is like you already have the one you have.
27:53 So like if you're writing a movie or editing a movie, like press save, that's there.
27:59 Don't worry.
28:00 You know what I mean?
28:01 Like, yeah, like you can go back to that way.
28:04 Like it costs you nothing to try things and like it'll feel maybe awful.
28:10 And sometimes it does.
28:11 It feels almost like painful to do it.
28:15 But it's worth it.
28:17 And it's worth even the humiliation of showing it in front of people to see if it works,
28:22 even even though you're not sure, because, you know, you you're like, well, I got to
28:28 try it.
28:29 And whenever we have those sorts of ideas where we're like, the movie's playing great,
28:33 everyone loves it.
28:34 Let's try a bunch of crazy stuff.
28:37 And one out of 10 of those will be great and actually bring the movie closer to that 99.9%
28:44 amazing.
28:45 Like, and so you have to do those things.
28:49 And the other nine are painful and you put them away.
28:52 Maybe there's like a little piece of one of them that's useful in some way, but you just
28:55 have to do that stuff.
28:57 And I know we both are like that.
28:58 And I'll be like, I'm just going to work on a bunch of weird ideas if you want to just
29:03 go and think of other things yourself.
29:05 And like we both come up with weird ideas.
29:07 Do you guys ever think about dying?
29:13 I'm just dying to dance.
29:16 Yeah.
29:17 And I think that's rare, too, to just have so much trust to just be like, I'm going to
29:22 do the craziest thing you've ever thought of.
29:25 Yeah.
29:26 I mean, I just also want to say out loud, like we stopped shooting the movie on July
29:32 21st, 2022.
29:35 And we knew this movie was being released on July 21st, 2023.
29:40 And a year to finish a movie of this size is that's really hard.
29:47 So my experience of editing this movie, I think more than any other movie I've done
29:54 was like the intensity of the editing process was about as intense as being on set.
29:59 I think I wrapped on a Friday.
30:01 I was in on a Monday.
30:03 We were just we hit the ground running and never stopped.
30:05 No, no.
30:06 Like, are we ever going to let up?
30:08 And we never did.
30:09 And we had to.
30:10 We just really had to.
30:12 We had we took two weeks off for Christmas.
30:15 And I took a couple of days off when I had a child.
30:18 When you had a child.
30:19 Yeah.
30:20 But no, I remember the two weeks off.
30:21 Honestly, I remember the two weeks off we had for Christmas because we released the
30:25 teaser and it was well received.
30:30 And it made me feel like something deep inside me relaxed a little bit because I'm like,
30:36 well, this is kind of the tone of the movie.
30:39 So if people seem to be liking it, that's got it.
30:42 That's a good sign.
30:43 Like, you know, I was basically just showing the beginning of the movie.
30:47 Yeah.
30:48 So it was like, OK, well, you know, it's a short thing.
30:51 But it was like and so that I think there was like some way in which we were like, OK,
30:56 now we can go have our holidays.
30:59 And then and then January was hard.
31:03 But anyway, well, this is really wonderful to talk about.
31:08 I feel like it's about as hard to talk about editing as it is to talk about writing.
31:12 Do you find that true?
31:13 It's like dancing about architecture, as you say.
31:16 Yes, as they say.
31:18 Yeah.
31:19 It's nice to actually talk about things like the little like show reels you did of each
31:25 thing because it's like, oh, we should remember that.
31:28 That's a good.
31:29 Yeah.
31:30 There's so many things like that.
31:31 Yeah.
31:32 There's so many things.
31:33 Maybe we should write them all down.
31:34 Like this was a good thing we did on this one.
31:36 But the next one will have its own problems and we won't know what they are yet.
31:40 Yeah.
31:41 And that brings me.
31:42 Can I ask this last question?
31:43 I don't know if we have time, but I like I like this one.
31:47 Goals as an artist going forward.
31:48 What are your goals as an artist going forward?
31:53 Make a lot of movies.
31:54 I mean, that's not a very I mean, make a lot of movies of, you know, different sizes, different
32:00 kinds of stories.
32:01 Like I feel like just keep going at that, you know, I guess that's that's that.
32:07 Is that a good goal?
32:08 I don't know.
32:09 Definitely.
32:10 And remember, you're what are your goals as an artist?
32:13 Yeah.
32:14 I just want to keep making stuff that I believe in and feel is important to me.
32:19 You know, like it's if you don't have something that like really resonates deep inside of
32:27 you, that's what I want to work on is things that do that.
32:30 And I've been really lucky to always be able to do that.
32:33 So I just want to continue that.
32:35 Yeah.
32:36 I'll see you.
32:37 I'll see you at the baseball of movies.
32:40 No, this is a terrible metaphor.
32:43 Well, thank you so much for for for talking.
32:48 This has been Fred Gerwig and Nick Hui talking the process.
32:54 And.
32:58 (gentle music)