Greta Gerwig on her childhood enthusiasm for putting on plays
Desert Island Discs

Greta Gerwig on her childhood enthusiasm for putting on plays

B2Upper-intermediateOctober 5, 20263 min
  • Interview

The film director Greta Gerwig was cast away by Lauren Laverne in 2023. Growing up in what she calls a "culturally ravenous" family, the young Greta was inspired by her parents' record collection as much as trips to concert halls and theatres, but although she was always putting on shows to entertain friends and family, she never expected to have a professional career in the arts. You can listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds.

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Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is Death at Island Discs postcards.

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archive and revisit some of our favourite castaways with you.

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0:00

Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is Death at Island Discs postcards. Each year we take a short break, which is the perfect time for us to delve into our archive and revisit some of our favourite castaways with you. The postcard arriving in your letterbox today comes from Greta Gerwig, who directed the

0:31

blockbuster Barbie and became the first woman in cinema history to have the sole director's credit for a billion dollar film. When she spoke to me in 2023, she told me that she grew up in a culturally ravenous family whose eclectic record collection she took a lot of inspiration from.

0:47

It was like Steve Martin's stand-up album and stuff like it was just this connection to other things like music and comedy and theater and it was we had recordings of plays which they used to put on records and then they would take me to everything that there was.

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