Greta Gerwig initially hesitated to star in *Frances Ha*, the 2012 film she co-wrote with director Noah Baumbach, because she felt the arrangement seemed overly self-indulgent. Baumbach reportedly dismissed her concerns as “ridiculous”, and Gerwig ultimately took the title role in a film that became a significant early milestone in her rise as a filmmaker and actor.

Gerwig compared writing and starring in the same project to “baking a cake and eating it yourself”, saying it felt “kind of disgusting” and likening the undertaking to Orson Welles. *Frances Ha*, shot in black and white on a small budget, follows an aspiring dancer navigating friendship and adulthood in New York; Gerwig’s performance helped establish her as a major independent-film talent.