From refusing to use CGI for Margot Robbie’s viral tiptoe scene to making sure “Barbie” didn’t have “too many baby angel heads,” we can all thank Greta Gerwig and her keen directorial flair for helping the newly released film resonate with fans around the world.
And now we have yet another reason to recognize Gerwig’s achievement.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Gerwig revealed she had to fight for a scene in “Barbie” where Barbie (Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) are in the “real world” walking past an elderly woman on a bench.
At that moment, Barbie stops to tell the woman that she is beautiful. However, Gerwig said the touching scene almost didn’t make it into the final cut as she faced pressure to drop the scene.
Gerwig said studio executives urged them to remove the scene because it didn’t contribute to the film’s plot, but the 39-year-old filmmaker stood his ground, insisting the scene was “the heart of the film.”
“I love that scene so much,” Gerwig told the magazine. “And the older woman on the bench is costume designer Ann Roth. She is a legend. In a way, it’s a dead end – it’s going nowhere. And in early cuts, when you saw the film, they said, ‘Well, you could cut it.’ And indeed the story would go on anyway.’ And I said, ‘If I cut the scene, I don’t know what this movie is about.’”
“That’s how I saw it. To me, that’s the heart of the film,” she continued. “The way Margot plays this moment is so gentle and so easy. There are the more outrageous elements in the film that people say, “Oh my god, I can’t believe Mattel would let you do this” or, “I can’t believe Warner Bros. would let you do this.” But for me, the part that I can’t believe is still in the film is this little dead end that goes nowhere — except that it’s the heart of the film.”
The scene may not be directly related to the plot, but Gerwig argued that the scene is crucial for fans to understand Barbie’s view of the real world after she leaves the pristine Barbieland.
“The idea of a loving God who’s a mother, who’s a grandmother – who looks at you and says, ‘Honey, you’re fine’ – is something I need and wanted to give to other people,” Gerwig told the New York Times of the meaning of the scene, which she called a “transaction of grace.”
“If I cut that scene, I don’t know why I’m doing this film,” Gerwig explained. “If I don’t have that scene, I don’t know what it is or what I did.”
Last week, Gerwig told IndieWire that despite “a lot of things that didn’t end up in the final film,” she insists she never has to remove “something that I was like, ‘Oh, this was taken from me by my company friends.'”
While the scene on the bench remained, some of the scenes from the film that were rescheduled, including Barbie and Ken’s kiss and guest appearances by Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet, were retained.
Barbie is now in cinemas nationwide.