(MENAFN- Arab Times) Creative duo Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach stepped out for the Los Angeles premiere of their new film "Mistress America" at the Ace Hotel on Friday as part of Sundance Next Fest. In addition to starring in the film, Gerwig co-wrote the screenplay with Baumbach, who also directed.
Gerwig spoke to a special moment in the film when Tracy (Lola Kirke), a college freshman, opens up about having extremely high, possibly unwarranted levels of confidence. "I love when they're talking to each other and (Tracy) says, 'If I could just figure out my look, I'd be the most beautiful woman in the world.' That's also a condition of being 18," Gerwig told Variety. "Unless you're one of the people who went to the Olympics, everything you're going to do is in front of you. And you don't really know what you're going to do, and of course you're ambitious."
Insecure The filmmaker and actress, who will soon helm her first solo project, "Lady Bird," continued to talk about why creating such a bold female character is exciting. "I feel like so often, for male characters too, but especially for female characters, an 18-year-old ingenue type of girl never gets to say, 'Sometimes I think I'm just smarter and better than everyone else.' That's kind of a great thing. (At 18) you feel both completely insecure and like the dumbest person in the room, and like you're maybe the best at the same time. I like confidence that's not totally based on anything."
Gerwig also mentioned that her character, Brooke, an eccentric and untameable force, is somewhat based on personal experience. "I've had a few people in my life who had elements of Brooke. But she's really an amalgamation of people I've known and Noah's known, and fictional stuff too." Other notable guests at the LA premiere included director Jason Reitman as well as Fox Searchlight execs Steve Gilula and Claudia Lewis, Mark and Jay Duplass, Miranda July and musician Sky Ferreira. Gerwig's co-star in the film, Kirke, is a relative newcomer, having recently acted in "Gone Girl" and the Amazon series "Mozart in the Jungle."
The actress also spoke to her character's candid tendencies. "I think that's such a cool part of Noah's writing," she said. "He is so good at finding something that would normally repulse us in people and making it charming." And as for working with Baumbach and Gerwig, Kirke said the key is to stick to the script. "They write really good dialogue for actors, and they're very particular about saying those words and nothing else - there's no improv."
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"Hello, everybody! " gushed Amy Schumer. bursting into Saturday's press conference room at Switzerland's Locarno and applauding herself. "Well, thank you!" And for the next 27 minutes, sitting beside her sister Kim Caramele, who played straight gal at the conference and takes an associate producer credit on "Trainwreck" - two or more Amy Schumers fielded questions from the international press as she tub-thumped the Judd Apatow-directed "Trainwreck" hours before Saturday's European premiere.
There was her feted comic persona, the ditzy femme airhead, known from Comedy Central's "Inside Amy Schumer" and the - one presumes - much more real life person shooting from the hip, and still often very funny, on herself, gun control (wellless funny on that one), working with Judd Apatow, "Trainwreck," humor and multiple other topics. Schumer was very fast, could answer comically without missing a beat, did not disappoint.
"Trainwreck" played to Europe's press Friday night to consistent laughter at what will probably be the most-attended press screening at Locarno. Remarkably then, at the "Trainwreck" press conference, the room was not packed to the rafters. It may be that, just as in the US with "Inside Amy Schumer," word on Schumer will take some time to grow outside the US -maybe until the international roll out of "Trainwreck" at least.
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