When the Oscar nominations were announced last month, many felt that it was unfair that Greta — who was nominated for Best Adapted screenplay with co-writer and husband Noah Baumbach — was shut out of the historically male-dominated category.
This makes it the second time that Greta was been nominated for Best Picture without receiving a nomination for Best Director as well, though Barbie was nominated for eight awards overall. Notably, Margot Robbie also failed to garner a nomination for her work in the titular role, despite costar Ryan Gosling receiving a nod from the Academy.
“Of course I wanted it for Margot,” Greta said in a recent interview with Time. “But I’m just happy we all get to be there together.”
Greta stressed that the movie did still receive nominations, adding with a laugh, “A friend’s mom said to me, ‘I can’t believe you didn’t get nominated,’ I said, ‘But I did. I got an Oscar nomination.’ She was like, ‘Oh, that’s wonderful for you!’ I was like, ‘I know!’”
When asked more broadly about proving herself as a director in a patriarchal society, she replied, “I don’t know if it’s gendered. But I know I want to be able to make a body of work that feels like it’s undeniable in terms of the work itself. I don’t want there to be an asterisk next to my name. Do I have more of that than male filmmakers? I don’t know! I know plenty of deeply insecure male filmmakers who are plagued in their own ways.”
As for what Greta does after the Oscars, she’s going to direct at least two movies adapting C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series — something that she’d written a draft for pre-Barbie.
“Knowing that I’d laid the groundwork for Narnia and wanted to return to it — that’s probably something I set up for myself psychologically,” she recalled. “Because I know the right thing, for me anyway, is to keep making movies. Whatever happens, good or bad, you’ve got to keep going.”
You can read the full interview here.