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Greta Gerwig on the Time Liv Ullman Felt Her Up

Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

This weekend at the New York Film Festival, Greta Gerwig attended the Stateside premiere of Eden — in which she plays a French DJ’s muse — the latest movie from writer-director Mia Hansen-Løve. And Gerwig got giggly describing the hands-on encounter she had with Liv Ullman in the exact same spot two years ago.

“When I had Frances Ha here, Liv Ullman was here with a documentary [Liv & Ingmar, based on Ullman’s four decades as real-life muse to Ingmar Bergman]. She’s one of my all-time idols, and she said, ‘People tell me we look like each other,’ and then she felt my waist” — Gerwig cinched her torso to demonstrate — “and she said, ‘You’re good. You’re built like a big girl! [Laughs.]”

Gerwig was flattered. “I think she liked my body. It was exciting,” she said. “I felt like she sort of approved of my rib cage. What I like to think is that she was feeling to make sure I had enough meat on my bones, and that she liked that. I sort of felt like this Swedish sage was feeling me up and telling me my body was good and hearty. Which felt nice. It was the sexiest I’ve ever felt.”

Greta Gerwig on the Time Liv Ullman Felt Her Up