Director Greta Gerwig‘s ‘Barbie‘ became one of the most unexpected highlights this year. The movie broke records in terms of its earnings as well as the narrative that it put forth. Having grossed $1.4 billion at the box office, it became the highest-grossing movie of the year.
‘Barbie’ is a satirical take on the iconic Barbie doll, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. Gerwig’s directorial work on films like ‘Lady Bird’ and ‘Little Women‘ was well received, but the heavy success of ‘Barbie’ has raised the bar considerably for her. Despite the Barbie doll being the icon of her groundbreaking success, Gerwig has revealed a shocking aspect of her relationship with the doll.
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Greta Gerwig Says She “Destroyed” Her Barbie Doll When She Finally Got One
In an interview on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Desert Island Discs‘, Gerwig revealed that her relationship with the Barbie doll was not rosy at all. She said her mother had discouraged her from having a Barbie doll because she was worried about reinforcing female stereotypes.
“My mom wasn’t so into Barbie. Certain moms, they would be like: ‘I don’t know if this is a good example of womanhood,’ the body type and everything … she was less excited about that,” Gerwig explained.
The director said she however got many hand-me-down dolls from her neighborhood friends. However, her mother eventually gave her a new Barbie doll for Christmas. But surprisingly, Gerwig said she “destroyed” it.
“Although my mom, I will give her credit, she did give me a doll, a proper doll, for Christmas, in a box. She relented and then I destroyed her [Barbie],” Gerwig said.
‘Barbie”s success is still being celebrated all across the world. The movie dominated the nominations at the 81st Golden Globe Awards last week, as it is up for nine awards. It scripted history to become the second-most nominated film ever at the Globes, second to ‘Nashville’. Gerwig is also up for the best director category.
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Gerwig Speaks About The Cultural “Barbenheimer” Phenomenon
Despite being released on the same day as Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, it succeeded in achieving may more than it was expected to. In fact, the healthy Nolan-Gerwig competition also triggered a “Barbenheimer phenomenon” wherein many people watched both films on the same day.
“It was such an extraordinary moment when it was released and came into the world. And then there was this overwhelming sense of everyone’s going to the movies again,” Gerwig said.
“For me, so much of when Noah Baumbach and I wrote the script, and what was the dream of making it, was really this hope of everyone being in cinemas again. And that was because we wrote it during – we started really writing it in March of 2020 and there was no movies,” she added.
“We weren’t gathering and I kind of thought, well, if we ever do this again, let’s make the most bananagrams thing they’ll let us get away with that you would want to be together for,” Gerwig said while speaking on ‘Desert Island Discs’.
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