As a child, Greta Gerwig was not allowed to play with Barbies.
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However, that didn't stop her from directing the film “Barbie,” which she co-wrote with her partner Noah Baumbach and which was the highest-grossing film of the year with an incredible $1.4 billion at the box office 2023 is.
However, she had little personal experience to draw on, as her mother believed that Mattel dolls reinforced sexist stereotypes about women. “My mother didn't like Barbie that much,” the 40-year-old filmmaker and actress told Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. “Some mothers said, 'I don't know if that's a good example of that.' is.' Femininity, the body and everything… she was less enthusiastic about that.”
The director still had a chance to play with Barbies because other little girls kindly gave her their old dolls and her mother finally gave in and bought her one. “I inherited a lot of things from the girls in the neighborhood I grew up in, so I got a lot of dolls,” she added. Even my mother, I owe it to her, gave me a doll, a real doll, in a box for Christmas. She gave in and then I destroyed her Barbie.”
On “Desert Island Discs,” guests must choose seven songs that they would take with them if they were stranded on a desert island. Greta Gerwig chose pieces by Elvis Presley, David Bowie, The Who and Nina Simone.