The 'Lady Bird' director also penned letters to Dave Matthews and Alanis Morissette.
For Greta Gerwig, flattery got her everywhere.
While on Late Night With Seth Meyers, the Lady Bird director presented the personal letters she wrote to Justin Timberlake, Alanis Morissette and Dave Matthews, asking permission to procure the rights to their hit songs.
The letters worked and Gerwig was able to have Timberlake's "Cry Me a River," Morissette's “Hand in My Pocket" and Dave Matthew Band's "Crash" play in her movie. Upon reading these notes to the musicians, it's clear why they agreed to let her use the tunes.
In her letter to Timberlake, the 34-year-old star begins, "I mean, what can I say? You’re Justin Timberlake.”
Gerwig goes on to note that she bought “both the CD and cassette” of the Justified album in 2003 because her "car didn’t have a CD player."
"You were the soundtrack to my adolescence," she gushes in her note to the 36-year-old pop star. "Between *NSYNC and your solo work, every year of my growing up was defined by your sound. I pretty much wouldn't be an adult without you."
Gerwig explains that "Cry Me a River" would play when the movie's heroine, Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson (Saoirse Ronan), "full-on makes out" with her crush, Kyle Scheible (Timothée Chalamet), at a party.
The actress-director concludes her letter by referring to herself as Timberlake's "very sincere fan."
Gerwig's letter to Morissette is equally adorable, as she immediately announces that her "very first cassette tape" was Jagged Little Pill.
"I saw the film Dogma because I heard that you played God, which seemed totally fitting to me," she writes. "Thank you for making all the music you did. You made a lot of girls feel like they could do anything."
Gerwig goes on to note that Ronan, Lady Bird's leading lady, sang Morissette's "Ironic" in the first film she ever did, and provided a link to the performance.
Dave Matthews Band may have received the biggest compliment as Gerwig refers to their 1996 track, "Crash," as "the most romantic song ever," adding that it's "sincere and loving and tender and epic."
Really laying it on thick, Gerwig insists that it's "impossible" for her to imagine making Lady Bird without including this song.
To Gerwig's delight, Lady Bird is currently playing in theaters with "Cry Me a River," Hand in My Pocket" and "Crash" in the film.
Gerwig isn't the only fan of "Cry Me a River." Back in May 2016, Justin Bieber covered the 2002 tune during his concert in Brooklyn. Check out JB covering JT!
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