Greta Gerwig has said she has “no feelings left” after directing the critically-acclaimed film Little Women.
She told Elle UK that she cried both while writing and making the coming of age period drama, adding: “Little Women feels as personal as anything I’ll ever make.”
The movie is the eighth feature film adaptation of the classic 1868 novel, which follows the four feisty March sisters – Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth.
Gerwig previously told Vanity Fair that the film, which follows the stories of the sisters as they grapple with life on the cusp of adulthood, “feels like autobiography”.
She told Elle that when she is working on films she goes “into a zone where I don’t wash or return calls and I go feral”.
She added: “I can go into hyperfocus as well as becoming more scattered.
“I like things that have a great deal of pressure and a lot of deadlines, because I need it.”
Little Women’s all-star cast featured Saoirse Ronan, Timothee Chalamet, Emma Watson, Laura Dern, Florence Pugh and Meryl Streep.
Gerwig added that she was “terrified” to work with Streep, who plays Aunt March in the film.
“She’s so smart and she knows more about how films are made than anyone,” said Gerwig.
“There were a couple of lines I wrote to get a character from A to B, inelegantly, and you know when Meryl asks, ‘now why do I say that?’ you’d better have a ****ing good answer.
“It’s intimidating, but it forces you to be better.
“Unfortunately, it’s uncomfortable to get better, because it means you have to look like an idiot in front of her.
“But she’s fabulous.”
After working with Gerwig on the film, Chalamet has praised her directing style.
He told Elle: “She has a way of talking with actors that is uniquely insightful.
“That’s perhaps because she’s an actress herself, but also because she has this intuitive way of speaking about movies, about acting and about the direction of a story.”
The February issue of Elle UK is on sale from January 9.
