Roles of the ‘Century’ for Gerwig and Bening Patrick Ryan
Offbeat drama explores love and contradictions
When Greta Gerwig was a kid, her mom always insisted that she pack her lunch and lay out her clothes the night before school.
“I always thought, ‘ When I grow up, I won’t be like that,’ ” says Gerwig, 33, sitting with her
20th Century Women co-star Annette Bening. Now “I have friends who have kids, and when I’ve stayed with them, I’d start to be like, ‘You need to lay out their clothes the night before. We’re not going to make all these decisions in the morning.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, I’ve become my mother.’ ”
A parent’s love, lessons and little quirks are at the heart of
20th Century Women (now showing in New York and Los Angeles; expands nationwide Jan. 20), which is nominated for two Golden Globe awards, including best comedy or musical and actress (Bening). Pundits on GoldDerby.com predict Oscar nominations for both her and Gerwig.
Bening plays eccentric single mother Dorothea, who is struggling to raise her 15-year-old son, Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann), in ’70s-era Santa Barbara, Calif. Feeling increasingly out of step with Jamie and the ever-changing world, Dorothea calls on her tenant, a punk photographer named Abbie (Gerwig), and Jamie’s boyhood crush, Julie (Elle Fanning), to help “raise” him to become a man, whether that means teaching him about feminism or how to smoke a cigarette.
“What I appreciate about this story is that there are three very different women,” says Bening, 58, who applauds writer/director Mike Mills for his textured female roles. “You don’t see a lot of complex stories about teenage girls, but the way that he’s written Elle’s character, there’s this dark side. ... There’s all these contradictions he puts together.”
20th Century is Mills’ first movie since 2010’s Beginners, which was inspired by his reallife father, who came out as gay at age 75. His latest is a similarly autobiographical tribute to his mother, a child of the Great Depression who looked like Amelia Earhart, aspired to be a pilot and worked as a draftswoman. She died of brain cancer in 1999.
In Dorothea, “I needed a natural, (middle-aged) woman who had some androgyny and an emotional intelligence,” says Mills, 50. “I purposely wrote (her) to be contradictory. ... Meeting Annette, I was like, ‘Oof, you’re so that person.’ ”
Mills gave his cast “research” materials to help them get to know their characters, including art and photography books for Gerwig. “He’s great at providing a library for your character that you can go back to,” Gerwig says. “For Mike, objects and artifacts are emotional.”
Bening also tapped into her own experiences raising four children with husband Warren Beatty and growing up in 1970s San Diego, as a self-confessed “theater nerd” with an unruly streak.
“I had a wild side,” Bening says, smirking. “But I haven’t told my children enough about that yet, so I’m not going to tell you.”