Greta Gerwig didn’t expect to play Babette in ‘White Noise’

• Greta Gerwig auditioned for the role of Babette in White Noise.
• She initially didn’t think she’d end up getting the part.
• Gerwig plays a homemaker married to a college professor.

Greta Gerwig, an actor and director, has admitted that she auditioned for the character of Babette in the Noah Baumbach-directed movie White Noise even though she didn’t think it would end up happening.

Because of numerous disruptions, Gerwig admitted in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that she initially didn’t think she’d end up playing the lead in White Noise. “I had a sense of what she was meant to look like. I saw her hair, her acrylic nails, her wardrobe. I just could visualize all of it, and I wanted very much to play her,” Gerwig remarked of the character Babette—a homemaker married to a college professor—”I just could envision all of it, and I wanted very much to portray her.” She continued, comparing it to a “fantasy baseball thing,” saying, “Then, I think, because we were in the height of lockdown when he was writing it [in early 2020], and starting to dream about this, nothing felt real, so the prospect of doing this was all imaginary in a way.”

“Like, sure, it’s me in this imaginary universe. Even leaving my apartment is impossible. If I’m not going to play Babette, why not? Then it actually happened.

Gerwig had been working as a director on movies including Lady Bird (2017), Little Women (2019), and more recently, Barbie prior to discussions of White Noise (2023).

In 20th Century Women, she played the part of Abbie in her final acting project (2016).

Years before Baumbach decided to adapt the book, Gerwig became interested in White Noise when she read DeLillo’s book for the first time at the age of 19. When she was about nineteen, Gerwig read the novel and felt it was “unbelievably lovely.”

“I believe I underlined two things on every page and kept writing ‘Ha!’ in the margins because it was so funny, and also I had just gotten to college, and it was my first true experience with academia, and how much it makes fun of academia was so amazing,” the reader recalls.

The actress said she loved the novel just as much when Baumbach asked her to reread it fifteen years later in preparation for the part.

“This is wonderful still, and it feels like it should be happening right now,” I remarked, almost having the same emotion. But it wasn’t until Noah started showing me the pages he was writing that I realised he had worked out how to turn it into one of his movies rather than just a movie.

Gerwig also had nothing but praise for the rest of the cast and crew, including her co-star Adam Driver, who plays her on-screen spouse.

Since I was approximately twenty-one or twenty-two years old, I’ve known Adam… In addition to praising him for his commitment to his job, Gerwig stated, “I’ve always thought he was remarkable and talented and we cast him, Noah and I, in the movie Frances Ha before he became himself.

There is nothing more enjoyable to work with than someone who is all-in all the time, and that is Adam. He is a really devoted actor who is deeply passionate about what he does. Gerwig also praised the efforts and talents of other members of the cast and crew.

“Since many of the same background artists worked continuously, you would frequently run across them. They were all excellent and dedicated, and Jess Gonchor, who created the sets, was just astoundingly talented. You wouldn’t believe how many specialised extras there were when Ann Roth, the costume designer, would clothe these amazing groupings of people.

A nearby chemical spill causes a college professor and his family’s pleasant lives to be upended in White Noise. The Gladney family is evacuated as a result of “The Airborne Toxic Event,” leaving them to deal with tensions from their daily lives as well as issues related to love, death, and the pursuit of happiness in an unreliable environment.

In addition to Driver and Gerwig, other actors who appear in the movie include Raffey Cassidy, Don Cheadle, Jodie Turner-Smith, Lars Eidinger, Gideon Glick, André 3000, and Danny Wolohan. Based on Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel of the same name, Baumbach wrote the screenplay and directed the movie.

Currently playing in cinemas, White Noise will be available on Netflix starting on December 30.

Check out the official movie trailer below in the interim:

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