Fortunately, Greta Gerwig was never comfortable being the charming, likeable ingénue who exists (in Hollywood, anyway) to be adored and/or saved by a male lead. When she came to the realization that she probably couldn’t sit by the pool and wait for the scripts to roll in, she decided she’d have to write them herself. Creating your own destiny can be a lot of work, but there’s comfort in knowing the result will ring true not only to you, but also to the artists whose work you find most exciting. It’s also the best way to use your own peculiarities and gifts, which in Gerwig’s case include a rare lack of artifice, a writerly ear for dialogue, and a way of turning the standard story tropes a few degrees askew. As you’ll gather from the following pages, she actually is quite charming and likeable. Just don’t tell her you “liked” Hamlet.