Greta Gerwig on the battle between ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ and Margot Robbie’s already iconic foot: ‘I’ve always thought of the arched foot as a bat signal’
After a worldwide tour of fan events, Barbie she finally made her debut at the film’s world premiere in Los Angeles on Sunday, on a pink carpet that had been transformed into a real Barbie Land.
Greta Gerwig – who directed and co-wrote (with partner Noah Baumbach, who sat out the event due to the writers’ strike) the film – looked back to its origins, with a script that star Margot Robbie said when she read it for the first time she was sure it would never be made.
“We wrote it at such a specific time, in the middle of lockdown and all that, and I was like, I don’t even know if there’s going to be any movies again, but if there are, let’s write the most outrageous, anarchic, hilarious thing “, he said The Hollywood Reporter. “We let imaginatively go out with a bang. It was something where I decided I had to direct once the script was written and it was really like I just wanted to do that, that was that. So I thought if we can’t do that that’s fine but I hope they let us.
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Gerwig also rated the viral response to Robbie’s Barbie foot, which stays arched when it comes out of her heels — and when her feet suddenly go flat, there’s something wrong with Barbie Land.
Saying she didn’t expect the reaction at all, the director added, “I always thought of the bowfoot as the bat signal, but everyone was like, ‘I heard the bat signal, I answered the call!’ ”
Issa Rae, who plays President Barbie, joked, “Thank god they weren’t taking my shoes off in the movie because the arch wouldn’t have been so pretty. I was surprised, I thought, ‘Margot, was that your foot?’ And she was like, ‘Yes.’ The confidence you have to have in that says everything about her. All you need to know about her is the fact that she has her arched foot effortlessly in that film. And it’s already an iconic foot. I’d still be there if it was me, they’d be like, ‘Okay, take 230, please do it right.’ I am an unprepared girl.
Gerwig also faced the Barbie vs. Oppenheimer rivalry that has developed, as the two films both feature casts of superstars and will be released in theaters on July 21st.
“It’s all love: double it, double it twice,” she said of the two films. “I think you have to see what the experience is, Barbie Then Oppenheimer, Oppenheimer Then Barbie. I think you have to do all the trips.
Rae added that she thinks the competition between films “is fun; I love that there’s solidarity where people have tried to turn us against each other, but now it’s turned into a double-picture situation. Of course you should see Oppenheimer first and then cleanse your palate with Barbie.”
Explained to go with Barbie according to which Christopher Nolan’s film “is about an atomic bomb, people are going to die. I want to wrap up my weekend, I want to have mimosas and drinks and cocktails after BarbieI don’t wanna sulk,” joking, “That’s just my plan, as long as you see Barbie I am not interested.”
Among the many Easter eggs in the film, Robbie anticipated that his favorites are “there is a moment where Ruth Handler, who created Barbie, and the Barbie I play meet, and when she hands her a cup of tea , our hands touch like the Michelangelo — it’s a biblical reference but Greta snuck her in there. The star also spends a lot of time skating once she gets to the real world, like America Ferrera, who shares those scenes with Robbie, joking on skating, “I was like, why are you so good at this? And I was like, ‘Oh yeah, you played Tonya Harding, got it.'”
Ferrera also reflected on seeing the Barbie Land sets for the first time, also saying as someone who hasn’t played with Barbies: “it just evoked a deeper childhood nostalgia for imagination and play and beauty and I excited, I started crying. The world created by Greta is simply amazing; she is such a visionary.
Added Simu Liu, who plays one of the Kens, “it’s kind of a perpetual sunset in Barbie Land, it’s always the golden hour; it’s a bit like a Chloe Zhao film, the sun always hits at the right angle. Very pink, probably pinker than I’ve ever felt in my life.” Liu also faces off against Ryan Gosling’s Ken in the film, joking, “Oh, let’s fight. It’s a delightful dynamic to play, especially for two Canadians who are supposed to be very polite by nature. I think we had to channel our inner American a little bit, a little bit of a butt. But I’m really excited for people to see the relationship unfold.
Barbie will be released in theaters on July 21.