At 22, actress is becoming the face of mumblecore

Greta Gerwig starred last year in the DIY-style "Hannah Takes the Stairs" (above, with Kent Osborne). Her new film is "Baghead."

NEW YORK - For connoisseurs of acting, last year's "Hannah Takes the Stairs" was more than another sterling effort in that ultra-low-budget, DIY-style of filmmaking known as mumblecore. From director Joe Swanberg, the film was an introduction to a fresh, unusual talent: Greta Gerwig. As Hannah, Gerwig appeared not to be acting, but merely being.

Mumblecore professes to show the world of college-educated 20-somethings life unfiltered; and of all the genre's actors, Gerwig best embodies its spirit of playfulness and post-adolescent confusion.

In her new film "Baghead," directed by Mark and Jay Duplass, Gerwig plays Michelle, an aspiring actress who may or may not be getting stalked by a creepy stranger who wears a bag on his head. It marks a milestone for mumblecore, being its first attempt at incorporating the formulas of a tried-and-true genre (in this case, horror), and possibly the beginning of its aesthetic's dilution into the cinematic mainstream. In the meantime, however, the 22-year-old actress, playwright, and screenwriter (she co-wrote "Hannah") is cementing her position as the face of mumblecore.

Q: How did you get into acting?

A: When I was a kid, I was a dancer - I was pretty serious about ballet. My body type was incorrect for it, so I transitioned into musical theater when I was in high school. I wanted to go to a conservatory, but my mom told me she wouldn't pay for college if I got a BFA. So I decided to go to Barnard College and got involved with playwriting. When I was graduating from college, I met Joe Swanberg and some of the other people who were making these do-it-yourself films and fell into it.

Q: What was making "Baghead" like?

A: We were shooting it in Texas, in the Lost Pines. It's this pine forest that has no earthly business being in Texas. None of us really knew how to make a horror film, so we had no idea what was scary or what would be. We had to shoot things a thousand different ways, because we didn't know what would actually read and what wouldn't. It was a lot of running and screaming, actually very little of which ended up in the movie. There was a moment - it was 5 in the morning, and I was screaming, "The baghead's coming!" - and I was like, "What am I doing with my life?"

Q: You seem to be more relaxed than anyone else on screen. How?

A: I think in general I tend to respond to actors who seem relaxed but focused. I think that comes from watching a lot of theater and working on a lot of theater. I think I've always tried to emulate that. I enjoy watching people who are comfortable, but I don't always feel comfortable.

Q: How much room did you have to create your own character for "Baghead"?

A: With "Baghead," I sat down with Mark and Jay to talk about the character, because as it was written on the page the structure of the film was very tight, but the character of Michelle herself was a blank slate. So they let me buy all of my own clothes for it and decide how I would dress her. I think when I sat down with them, I said, "I think Michelle is the kind of girl who really likes to say [expletive]." They [said], "Yeah, that sounds right."

Q: Do you see yourself transitioning to mainstream films? Are we going to see Greta Gerwig in "Iron Man 5"?

A: I loved "Iron Man"! I hope to work with a variety of people and make lots of different things, both in writing and in acting, because I think that one of the greatest enemies of creative production, whatever you're doing, is developing too strong an idea of who you are. We're always changing, and who you were at 22 isn't who you're going to be at 30, or 35. I don't know where my life is going! I wish I did. I wonder! I lie in bed at night and wonder what's going to become of me. (laughs)

Q: What's next for you? Any plans to write another film?

A: I think I'm going to go to Rome in a couple days and make a film with Caveh Zahedi, and then possibly make another film with him in November. Weirdly, I wrote a really big paper in college about his films. I was analyzing his films through the lens of [French psychoanalyst Jacques] Lacan.

Q: That's a real college paper.

A: Yeah, it was a good college paper. [Zahedi] was in town in 2005, promoting "I Am a Sex Addict," and I somehow got his number and e-mail address. I went to his hotel room at the Holiday Inn and did the most awkward interview with him. Cut to two years later, and he came to see "Hannah Takes the Stairs" at IFC [a movie theater in Greenwich Village], and I was like "Oh, God." He asked me to send him the paper, but I never have, because it's so embarrassing.

Q: In both "Hannah" and "Bag-head," you've had nude scenes. Are you comfortable with shooting them, or are they a challenge for you?

A: I don't have a problem with nudity at all. I'm not self-conscious about it. From the time I was very young, all the people I looked up to were ballet dancers who would run offstage and change their clothes really quickly. It was not a big issue for them. Sex scenes are very hard, and I don't enjoy them, because it's very different to have somebody touching you. The "Hannah" DVD recently came out, and there are all these pictures of me [online]. I don't mind; I guess I knew it could happen, but it takes it out of the context of how you meant it, and makes it something gross. Especially with "Hannah," the point of that nudity was not to be titillating.

Q: This is a very job-interview-esque question, but where do you see yourself in five or 10 years?

A: In five or 10 years, I hopefully see myself having health insurance.

Q: That's an admirable goal.

A: What I really think about is, what do I want to be when I'm 70? Because I think our culture is so obsessed with young people, and early work. I've always been so much more drawn to people who are making things when they're older, like [Robert] Altman. You know things when you're 60 that you don't know when you're 22.