Filmmakers Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach have become the unofficial King and Queen of awards season. Their 2019 films Little Women and Marriage Story are nominated for six Oscars each, including Best Picture. Last year, the couple also welcomed their first child together. Before they go head to head at the Academy Awards, relive Baumbach and Gerwig’s love story from their first film together to now.
2010
Baumbach and Gerwig first meet on the set of his 2010 film Greenberg. According to a New York Magazine feature, Baumach saw Gerwig in the 2007 film Hannah Takes the Stairs, which Gerwig co-wrote and starred in. He liked her performance and urged his agent to check out Gerwig’s work, which got her a Hollywood agent and role alongside Ben Stiller in Greenberg.
The film also co-starred Baumbach’s then-wife Jennifer Jason Leigh, which whom he welcomed son Rohmer that same year. Five months after the movie premiered, the pair divorced following five months of marriage. Per The New Yorker, Gerwig didn’t play a role in the couple’s divorce (which is rumored to have inspired Marriage Story). “Baumbach and Gerwig firmly place the start of their romance at a point after his separation,” the piece read.
Circa 2011/2012
Gerwig and Baumbach next collaborated on the 2012 film Frances Ha, which they co-wrote. Baumbach directed and Gerwig starred in the film. History suggests that the creative partners’ relationship became romantic during this time.
A Los Angeles Times article from 2012 referred to the pair as “a real life couple.” A Globe and Mail story from 2013 branded the beginning of their romance as September 2011, a month into work on the film. Neither definitively commented on romance speculation, although Baumbach told The Guardian in 2013, “In making this, I was led by Greta. Things were clear to me in large part because of knowing Greta.”
The potential couple traveled the festival circuit promoting the film, which eventually earned Gerwig a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy.
2015
Gerwig and Baumbach teamed up again for the 2015 film Mistress America. She co-wrote and co-produced the film with Baumbach, starring alongside Lola Kirke.
The couple was also set to work together on the star-studded series The Corrections, which would see Gerwig co-star with the likes of Chris Cooper and Maggie Gyllenhaal. According to Deadline, HBO passed on the project. (Around the same time, Gerwig’s How I Met Your Mother spinoff pilot at CBS, titled How I Met Your Dad, wasn’t picked up.)
Although the frequent collaborators were a couple in real life, Gerwig later told Vogue that she rejected the implication she was Baumbach’s “muse.” “I remember being very frustrated by that and wanting to correct it,” she told the outlet for her January 2020 cover. When asked if their relationship led to more work opportunities she explained, “But the answer is: Yes, of course, for so many reasons. But he’s also this incredibly important collaborator and influence on me. The most important. But I think I was hell-bent on making my own films, so I would’ve done it anyway.”
2018
At the start of January, Gerwig won the Best Picture Musical or Comedy Golden Globe for her directorial debut Lady Bird. But during her acceptance speech, she forgot to thank Baumbach, something she pointed out during an appearance on The View. “I had an entire speech that I was going to give and I got up there … I looked at Oprah and I was like, ‘It’s gone,’ she rememered. But I had a whole thing about him. He’s my favorite writer and my favorite first reader.”
Clearly, there were no hard feelings from Baumbach, who attended the Oscars that year by Gerwig’s side.
2019
Last year was undoubtedly the most major for Gerwig and Baumbach. In March, Page Six confirmed the birth of the pair’s son Harold Ralph Gerwig Baumbach. Gerwig kept her pregnancy under wraps while directing Little Women. But she publicly declared their child’s birth by posing with him at six months old on the cover of Vogue. She jokingly said she “gave him all the names.”
The writer-directors had two other important releases in 2019. Baumbach’s Marriage Story was released in August, while Gerwig’s Little Women hit theaters on Christmas day. Both were promoting their films around the same time during awards season.
Baumbach told Vogue about how their overlapping careers impacted their relationship:
“I think the pleasure of writing for us is that it seeps into everything. I’d show her a cut of my movie, and then a few months later, I’m watching her movie. I don’t want to sound sickeningly happy, but it’s a truly great thing to watch someone you love make something and love the thing they make. I don’t know how else to say it without saying great a lot.”
Baumbach and Gerwig both attended the premieres of each other’s films, which coincidentally both feature Laura Dern.
They each took part in a Director’s Roundtable for The Hollywood Reporter. When asked by the moderator how Gerwig influences Baumbach’s work and vice versa he said, “It’s beyond advice it’s like the roots. She’s in there from the very beginning.” He continued, “Greta has lines in all my movies that are actually hers—I mean maybe things she said in life but also things she wrote that I say, ‘Can I use that?'”
At the end of January, the couple stopped by The Late Late Show with James Corden where they revealed what they call each other, considering they’re not yet married. “‘Boyfriend’ makes it sound like I just met him last week,” Gerwig explained. “‘Lover’ is disgusting. And ‘fiancé’ makes it sound like there’s an imminent wedding. So none if it works.” They also recalled waking up to find out each had earned six Oscar nominations.
In their first joint-profile interview with THR the couple discussed conquering awards season together (including the time they were sat separately at the Governors Awards).
They each spoke about how entwined their processes are, even when they’re not working together. “When we’re working on our own projects, we’re always talking about them and showing each other things,” Baumbach told the outlet. “I always feel very much a part of what she’s done. [Little Women] is absolutely hers, but it’s not like I woke up one day and this movie’s in theaters. She’s been talking about it for a few years. It feels like, ‘How great that this is being recognized in the way that you hoped it would.’ “
For Gerwig’s part she admitted, “There is a sense of wanting to show off for each other. At least on my part. I remember when I showed Noah cuts or drafts of Little Women. He’s my favorite filmmaker and my favorite writer. It means everything to me that he thinks it’s good.”
No matter whose film walks away with the most wins at Sunday’s awards, the couple already has their next project together lined up. Variety reported in July that they’ll be co-writing a live-action Barbie movie starring Margot Robbie.
2022
During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in December of 2022, Gerwig announced she was pregnant for a second time.
“Yes, I am with child,” she replied when Fallon asked her if she had an news. The audience applauded.
2023
Their Barbie film was released on July 21, 2023, to a massive opening weekend. A few days before, Gerwig revealed she and Baumbach have welcomed a second child together, something they’d kept private. The baby came up during an interview with Elle UK, as Gerwig described pumping breastmilk and sharing a photo of the infant at his four-month check-up.
“He’s a little Schmoo,” she said. “I don’t know if you can tell energy from the picture, but that’s very much his energy. The little guy is sleeping through the night. But I’m still doing that thing where I wake up, every hour to 90 minutes, and just hover. You just keep wanting to look at that baby. So I’m slightly in a twilight state.”
Editorial Fellow
Savannah Walsh is an Editorial Fellow at ELLE.com.