Lola Kirke Takes New York

In Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s latest film, Mistress America, breakout star Lola Kirke plays Tracy, a Barnard College freshman trying to navigate New York City. Her soon-to-be step-sister, Brooke (Gerwig)—who is nothing like her real-life sister Jemima Kirke—takes her on a whirlwind tour, showing Tracy everything from Times Square, where she lives, to Soul Cycle, where she works.

At the film’s premiere Monday night at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema in New York City, Gerwig revealed that she resembled Lola’s character as a college freshman, wearing oversized blazers and eating too much pizza. She’s also been known to grace a Soul Cycle bike once in a while. “I keep it together for two songs, and then I’m like, What the fuck! This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done!” she says.

Kirke had similar feelings about the intense workout routine, especially after having to do three in a row while filming. “But then I left and I felt so amazing and I went for a really long time and would cry and make really grandiose decisions about my life while I was on the bike,” she says. “And then I realized I [how expensive it was] and decided to stop going and ride my own bike.”

Following the film screening, the cast was joined for an after party at the Top of the Standard by Lena Dunham’s sister Grace Dunham, indie directors Wes Anderson and Darren Aronofsky, blogger-turned-editor-turned-actress Tavi Gevinson, novelist Salman Rushdie, and of course, Jemima Kirke. Lola Kirke, in her glitter high heels, was almost certainly not riding her bike home that evening.