Five Things with Lynn Hirschberg

Charlize Theron opens up about family, her childhood in South Africa, and the people who helped her break into Hollywood. The Bombshell actress tells Lynn about JJ Harris, her late mentor, and speaks candidly about how therapy helped her balance her relationship with her home country and its traumatic history. She also shares a story of an unruly camel on her first modeling job in Morocco, confesses her love for Temptation Island and The Bachelor, and reflects on the enduring importance of one of her most vulnerable roles.

Saoirse Ronan sits down with Lynn Hirschberg to discuss pivotal moments in her life, ranging from early memories to professional milestones. The actress talks about working with filmmaker Greta Gerwig (whom she first met via Skype) on 2019's Little Women. She also highlights her favorite place in the world (the “heaven” that is New Zealand), gets into her love of the movie Dirty Dancing, and recalls how, when it came to dressing up when she was younger, she was more of a Tai than a Cher.

Greta Gerwig sits down with Lynn Hirschberg to discuss the process of adapting Little Women into her latest film, her relationship with her partner Noah Baumbach, and how getting “completely rejected by the world of academic art-making” pushed her to seek a broader education that ultimately brought her to where she is today. Gerwig tells Hirschberg about her love for Big Sur—a place that felt like “Brigadoon” to her while growing up—and how the day after attending the Academy Awards for Lady Bird, she packed up and retreated to a cabin in the woods to write. She also gets into the complex dynamics between the March sisters, the strangest part about making movies, and how she has a running list of future project ideas in the double digits.

Marriage Story director Noah Baumbach sits down with Hirschberg to discuss the films that impacted him the most as a child, his deep connection with Brooklyn, collaborating with his partner Greta Gerwig and the most difficult time in his professional career. Baumbach also talks about how the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers still comes up in therapy sessions and how, even though people rarely ask him about the autobiographical aspect of Francis Ha, there’s a line in the film that encapsulates how he felt in his late 20s.

Actress, Screenwriter, and now Director, Brit Marling, speaks candidly with W Magazine's Editor-at-Large, Lynn Hirschberg, about a peculiar acting coach in Los Angeles, working on set, the radically feminine works of photographer Francesca Woodman, the cancellation of her first show, The OA, and a powerful lightning storm that left Marling feeling inspired.