Director Greta Gerwig Had To Attend 'Barbie Boot Camp' Before Making The Movie
For a bubble gum pop movie catering to the masses, Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" has a lot riding on it. Warner Bros. is betting that a more self-aware version of Mattel's picture perfect doll will appeal to a wide array of people who grew up associating the Barbie universe with an unattainable level of idealized beauty. Starring Margot Robbie in a role she may have been born for, "Barbie" is gearing up to be one of the biggest blockbusters of the summer after a hugely successful marketing campaign and the release of a bubbly, infectious trailer promising a film with sensuous visuals and biting humor.
After the company introduced a more inclusive redesign of their iconic doll line in 2016, Gerwig's interpretation of Barbie is also part of a plan by Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz to launch a new cinematic universe featuring characters based on the company's signature toys. If Gerwig's move from indie mumblecore movies to a large scale feature celebrating Barbiecore seems odd, just keep in mind: the actor-turned-director grew up loving dolls well into her formative years. "I played with dolls too long," she told TIME. "I was still doing it in junior high. Kids were drinking, and I was playing with dolls."
With so much at stake for Mattel and Warner Bros., Gerwig had to tiptoe a fine line in making sure that both corporate interests were addressed while still being able to add her own social commentary. "This movie is a godd**n miracle," she exclaimed, calling it a "surprising spicy margarita." Gerwig added, "You can already taste the sweetness and you sort of go with the spice." To appease the higher-ups at Mattel and research the 60-year history of Barbie, Gerwig attended a boot camp of sorts that was rudely interrupted by the pandemic (which proved to be a blessing in disguise).
Writing Barbie in a bubble
Greta Gerwig wrote the script to "Barbie" with her longtime collaborator and partner Noah Baumbach. Due to the world effectively shutting down in 2020, they both had an unprecedented amount of time alone without any outside interference, shielding them from creative input in the form of studio notes or concerns from nervous Mattel executives. Just before COVID, Mattel put on a Barbie boot camp, beginning with the origin story of Ruth Handler, who started the company with her husband in 1945. The first Barbie doll went on display at the American Toy Fair in New York City in March of 1959, kicking off a trend that would lead to over a billion worldwide sales. The tour that Gerwig and Baumbach embarked on also reportedly included a detailed look into the fashion of Barbie over the decades that covered the highlights and the missteps along the way.
Before they were completely inundated with Barbie material, the two writers locked themselves away back in New York and got to work on a story that they could feel comfortable with. As the film's star, whose company LuckyChap was also producing "Barbie," Margot Robbie made sure to give them the room they needed. "We worked hard to give them their space and let them come up with what the movie was going to be, uninterrupted, without people pushing an agenda on them. Not Mattel, not Warner Bros., not us," she told TIME. "And then when I saw the script, I was like, 'They're never going to let us do this. This is really pushing it.'"
Staying on brand and staying true to yourself
When "Barbie" begins, audiences are going to be catapulted in the pristine, plastic cookie color world known as Barbie Land, where each Barbie leads a seemingly perfect existence. That utopia suddenly cracks when Margot Robbie's Barbie starts having an existential crisis that leads her into the real world, with her bohunk beau Ken tagging along, of course. The transition from the vacuum sealed safety of Barbie Land into our world provides Greta Gerwig an opportunity to comment on heavier issues surrounding capitalism and feminism while still making something that is, at its candy core, a fun summer romp that's meant to entertain.
"Barbie" may be remembered as a great time at the movies, but it could also serve as a defining example of how to take what is essentially an ingeniously disguised toy ad and turn it into something much more personal. "Barbie" is sure to inspire a lot of conversation, and hopefully it will manage to do that without undermining the film's inherent sense of fun. After all, a movie called "Barbie" should feel like an all-night slumber party, not an ethics class.
For all intents and purposes, it looks like Gerwig has managed to walk that tightrope and still make a movie that feels like her own. Adding footage of the cast and crew's personal lives (including Super 8 footage that Margot Robbie has filmed herself over the years), Gerwig has already inserted elements that make what could've been a soulless corporate exercise into something a little more meaningful. The director told TIME, "It's like sneaking in humanity to something that everybody thinks is a hunk of plastic."
"Barbie" hits theaters nationwide on July 21, 2023.