40 Fun Facts About Lady Bird

How does Saoirse Ronan's character break her arm during an argument with her mother as Lady Bird opens?

Jumping from a moving car is her reply to being called ungrateful by her mother, Marion. The two had been rowing about her dream of an East Coast college.

Which John Steinbeck novel are Lady Bird and her mother listening to on tape as the film Lady Bird begins?

The Grapes of Wrath leaves mother and daughter in tears together, moments before they start arguing about college. The audiobook was borrowed from the public library.

Which Roseanne star earned an Oscar nomination for playing Marion, the title character's mother, in Lady Bird?

Laurie Metcalf, a three-time Emmy winner as Jackie in Roseanne, was cast after Gerwig watched her stage work. Critics singled out her tough-loving Marion.

Which actor, Oscar-nominated the same season for Call Me by Your Name, plays band member Kyle in Lady Bird?

Timothée Chalamet became the third-youngest Best Actor nominee that season and appeared in two of the year's Best Picture contenders. His Kyle Scheible is a rich hipster.

Lady Bird broke which Pixar film's record for the most reviews while still holding 100% on Rotten Tomatoes?

Toy Story 2 had held the record with 163 positive reviews until Lady Bird reached 164. The perfect score ended when one critic filed a negative review.

Greta Gerwig traced the nickname in Lady Bird not to a First Lady but to which kind of traditional verse?

A nursery rhyme from Mother Goose is the source, not Lady Bird Johnson. Gerwig said the name simply appeared on the page while she was stuck, and she only later remembered the verse.

Which skin condition did Saoirse Ronan refuse to hide under makeup while playing the lead in Lady Bird?

Acne stayed on show because Ronan wanted a teenager's face in a movie to look like one in real life. She also dyed her hair for the role.

Which 2023 film made Greta Gerwig of Lady Bird the first woman to direct a billion-dollar hit on her own?

Barbie crossed $1 billion worldwide, a first for a film with one woman holding the sole directing credit. It also earned Gerwig an Oscar nomination for adapted screenplay.

Lady Bird star Saoirse Ronan was born in the Bronx but raised in which country, her parents' homeland?

Ireland became home when Ronan was three, after her Dublin-born parents moved the family back from New York. She was raised in County Carlow.

What did Greta Gerwig send Justin Timberlake and Alanis Morissette to win the rights to songs for Lady Bird?

Personal letters went to Timberlake, Morissette and Dave Matthews, each asking for one song. Gerwig revealed the tactic on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

What do the title character and best friend Julie snack on while lying on the school floor in Lady Bird?

Communion wafers, unconsecrated ones, are what the pair munch while giggling about sex. Their Catholic girls' school shares its drama club with a nearby boys' school.

Which Stephen Sondheim musical does the school drama club stage as its fall show in Lady Bird?

Merrily We Roll Along is the show Gerwig has called her favourite musical. Its rehearsals are where the heroine falls for her first boyfriend, Danny.

Which Dave Matthews Band hit, a song Greta Gerwig called incredibly romantic, features prominently in Lady Bird?

Crash into Me recurs through the film; Gerwig said she had always wanted to make out to it and never did.

Which independent studio, also behind Best Picture winner Moonlight, released Lady Bird in American cinemas?

A24 bought worldwide rights in July 2017, then watched Lady Bird overtake Moonlight as the company's top earner in North America at the time.

Which Three Billboards star beat Saoirse Ronan of Lady Bird to the Best Actress Oscar at the 90th Academy Awards?

Frances McDormand won for playing a grieving mother out for vengeance, the second Best Actress Oscar of her career. Ronan had to settle for a Golden Globe.

Which film beat Lady Bird to Best Picture at the 90th Academy Awards after leading the field with thirteen nominations?

The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro's romantic fantasy, won four Oscars that night. Lady Bird went home empty-handed from its five nominations.

Which actress, the younger sister of Jonah Hill, plays best friend Julie Steffans in Lady Bird?

Beanie Feldstein followed the film with a Golden Globe-nominated lead in the comedy Booksmart two years later. She is the youngest of three children.

Which playwright, a Pulitzer winner for August: Osage County, plays Larry, the heroine's father, in Lady Bird?

Tracy Letts also won a Tony for that play, and was one of several stage veterans Gerwig recruited to fill out her Sacramento.

Greta Gerwig, who drew on her own schooldays for Lady Bird, chose her high school partly to pursue which sport?

Fencing tournaments meant missing class, and the school's president promised to accommodate her absences. Gerwig, raised Unitarian, did not keep the sport up through college.

Greta Gerwig's nomination for Lady Bird made her only the fifth woman ever shortlisted for which Academy Award?

Best Director had seen just four female nominees before her, and Gerwig earned hers with a solo debut. She was nominated for her screenplay the same night.

Which University of California campus, half an hour from home, does the heroine of Lady Bird dread ending up at?

UC Davis is just the kind of nearby in-state school her mother begs her to apply to. Her father secretly helps her apply out of state, ready to refinance the house if need be.

Which Manchester by the Sea actor picked the role of Danny when offered any male part in Lady Bird?

Lucas Hedges had been Oscar-nominated for that earlier drama, and in the same season as Lady Bird he also appeared in a second Best Picture nominee.

The heroine of Lady Bird is suspended from school for heckling a guest speaker at what kind of assembly?

Anti-abortion was the theme, and the suspension lands just as popular Jenna discovers that Lady Bird lied about which house was hers.

What happens to Larry McPherson in Lady Bird that puts out-of-state college tuition beyond the family's reach?

He loses his job, which leaves the family leaning on Marion's income as a nurse. Larry still quietly encourages his daughter to apply to her dream schools.

Whose vehicle do the heroine of Lady Bird and popular girl Jenna vandalize as a prank?

A nun is the target, and the prank is part of a bid to win over the popular crowd. Meanwhile Lady Bird also inflates her family's wealth.

How does Marion punish her daughter all summer after learning about a secret college waitlist in Lady Bird?

The silent treatment lasts right up to the airport, where Marion still refuses to say goodbye. Danny had let the secret slip during a family celebration at a restaurant.

After a hospital stay in New York, where does the heroine of Lady Bird go and find herself moved to tears?

A church visit leaves her in tears, and afterwards she phones home to apologise and thank her mother. She had been hospitalised after drinking heavily at a college party.

Greta Gerwig banned cell phones on the Lady Bird set, a rule she borrowed from which filmmaker, her partner?

Noah Baumbach had directed her in Greenberg and Mistress America. Gerwig also arrived an hour before everyone else each day, a habit learned from filmmaker Rebecca Miller.

Which Arthur Miller play on Broadway kept Saoirse Ronan busy and delayed the Lady Bird shoot by months?

The Crucible revival, in which Ronan made her Broadway debut as Abigail Williams, pushed filming back from March to August 2016.

Which 2019 literary adaptation reunited Greta Gerwig with Lady Bird star Saoirse Ronan, this time as an aspiring writer?

Little Women cast Ronan as Jo March and brought her another Best Actress nomination, while the film itself was up for Best Picture.

Greta Gerwig handed the Lady Bird cast her old yearbooks and passages by which Sacramento-born essayist?

Joan Didion, born in the city in 1934, also supplies the quotation that opens the film. Gerwig rounded off the homework with a tour of her hometown.

Which composer of the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind score wrote the music for Lady Bird?

Jon Brion steered clear of a strings-only score and built his themes around a wind ensemble, his favourite section of the orchestra.

Greta Gerwig hoped to follow Lady Bird with a quartet of Sacramento films modelled on which novelist's books?

Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels, a four-part series following two girls from Naples, were the model Gerwig named on a podcast in 2018.

Greta Gerwig wanted Lady Bird to be a female counterpart to The 400 Blows and which Richard Linklater film?

Boyhood follows a Texas child from six to eighteen, filmed in short bursts over twelve years with the same cast. Gerwig wanted that kind of growing-up tale told about a girl.

At which film festival did Lady Bird have its world premiere, a week before screening in Toronto?

Telluride hosted the first screening on September 1, 2017, a week before a Toronto audience gave the film a standing ovation. Cinemas got it two months later.

Lady Bird spent just one week shooting in Sacramento itself; which city hosted most of the remaining filming?

Los Angeles and its outskirts stood in for the state capital because the budget would not stretch to a full location shoot. The family home was found in Van Nuys.

Greta Gerwig told cinematographer Sam Levy that Lady Bird should look like what, a brief he met with a photocopier?

A memory was the brief, so Levy re-copied reference pictures until they turned grainy and muted, then matched that look with old lenses on a digital camera.

Which holiday does the heroine of Lady Bird spend with boyfriend Danny's wealthy family instead of her own mother?

Thanksgiving, her last before graduation, goes to Danny's family. She later passes off his grandmother's house as her own to impress a popular classmate.

Before directing Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig co-wrote and starred in which black-and-white film about a struggling dancer?

Frances Ha earned Gerwig a Golden Globe nomination, and her real parents appear in it as her character's mother and father.

Which I, Tonya star took the Best Supporting Actress Oscar ahead of the actress playing the mother in Lady Bird?

Allison Janney won as LaVona Golden in the black comedy about figure skater Tonya Harding, a part the screenwriter had written specifically for her.