GREENBERG directed by Noah Baumbach, written by Baumbach from a story by Baumbach and Jennifer Jason Leigh, with Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans, Mark Duplass and Leigh. An Alliance release. 106 minutes. Opens Friday (March 26). For venues, times and trailers, see Movies.
Noah Baumbach would like to reintroduce you to Ben Stiller.[rssbreak]
Baumbach, who makes difficult movies about difficult people – he brought us The Squid And The Whale and Margot At The Wedding – is back with Greenberg, which casts Stiller as a misanthropic, maladjusted New Yorker who comes to stay at his brother’s empty house in Los Angeles and almost immediately involves himself with his brother’s assistant.
People who see Stiller’s face on the movie poster and go in expecting a broad comic entertainment – or even a movie about a Woody Allen nebbish – are going to be surprised. Stiller’s been serious before, in films like Permanent Midnight and The Royal Tenenbaums, but Baumbach finds something new.
“I always wanted somebody who could play the reality of the character,” the director explains over the phone from Los Angeles, “but I also wanted somebody who is funny and who would know what was funny – even if he didn’t play it for comedy in a traditional sense. Someone who has a sense of where the humour lies in a scene is very important for me. That was something Jeff Daniels brought to Squid, too.”
Stiller’s co-star, Greta Gerwig, is less of a known quantity outside the art-house circuit, where she’s emerged as a breakout indie star in movies like Baghead, Nights And Weekends and The House Of The Devil.
“Anyone who’s putting money into your movie would always rather you cast well-known people,” Baumbach admits, “but I had this hunch about her. She seemed so credible and unique, and I just had this feeling that she could be ideal for Florence. But I didn’t know how she’d be with scripted dialogue – her other movies are so heavily improvised – and she was so good. I mean, really, immediately. I wished I could have shot at that moment, because she just connected really deeply to this character. So then I had her come read with Ben, and I taped it. And as soon as the studio saw that, it was clear to everybody – there was no resistance.”
Good thing, too. Pairing the comedically inclined Stiller and Gerwig in relatively serious roles gives Greenberg an uneasy tension. Watching their story play out, you’re never quite sure whether to laugh or wince. And Baumbach is okay with that.
“I get a lot of responses to my movies,” he says. “Some people say, ‘Oh, I thought it was really funny – I hope that’s okay!’ And my answer always is ‘Yes. It’s totally okay.'”
That’s an interesting way to put it – almost as though people need permission to laugh at the darker stuff.
“I suppose some studio executive would say it’s death for a comedy if people aren’t all laughing in the same places, but I find with my movies that people laugh in very different places,” he says. “I can’t control it. Certainly in my last three movies, there are many moments that do operate on both levels, and it depends a lot on what you bring to the movie.”
Interview Clips
Noah Baumbach on his writing process:
Baumbach on collaborating with his wife, actress Jennifer Jason Leigh:
Baumbach on shooting in widescreen:
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