Greta Gerwig made history by bringing the beloved children’s toy ‘Barbie’ to life. Her film explores the nitty-gritty of human life and explores a coming-of-age sort of tale through the experiences of Barbie in the real world. A poignant yet wonderful tale, the film has some amazing monologues and features.
One of the best moments of the Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling starrer film is its ending. A literal mic drop last line inspired by her own experiences, Greta Gerwig reveals why she decided to include it.
SPOILER AHEAD!
Greta Gerwig On Barbie’s Ending
As Barbie travels through the human world, the realization of what it means to be human and more particularly a ‘woman’ hits her with surprising intensity. This realization along with her overcoming her existential crisis and the delusions of the Barbie world finals leads to her becoming a human. As she makes her way through the human world, she stops at an office-like building, and then delivered the best line of the entire film,
“I’m here to see my gynecologist.”
A literally mic-drop event, it surprised many and made rest holler with laughter. Greta Gerwig explains her reasoning behind the line,
“With this film, it was important for me that everything operated on at least two levels. I knew I wanted to end on a mic drop kind of joke, but I also find it very emotional. When I was a teenage girl, I remember growing up and being embarrassed about my body, and just feeling ashamed in a way that I couldn’t even describe. It felt like everything had to be hidden.”
She then added it was revolting yet a relief-filled moment to see Margot Robbie as Barbie smile eye to eye when she said it,
“And then to see Margot as Barbie, with this big old smile on her face, saying what she says at the end with such happiness and joy, I was like, if I can give girls that feeling of, ‘Barbie does it, too’ – that’s both funny and emotional. There are so many things like that throughout the movie. It was always about looking for the levity and the heart.”
Greta Gerwig wasn’t wrong about Barbie being an inspirational movie, and it clearly does justice to the ‘aspirational’ characteristic of the popular children’s toy.
At The Same Time, Greta Gerwig Feels Barbie Is Unrealistic
Barbie was created to be an aspirational figure to young women in a society where patriarchy was deeply rooted. Although, over the years the toy has come about to be more realistic, it still remains as ‘unrealistic’ as ever. And Greta Gerwig feels the same,
“Barbie has always been held up to be a sort of unrealistic physical ideal: impossibly beautiful, and impossible to achieve for a mere mortal.”
The Ladybird filmmaker added that nobody could be Barbie due to it being absolutely perfect.
“Barbie is something that was invented…….. (Ruth Handler) is not Barbie. Margot’s not Barbie. Nobody’s Barbie.”
Perhaps that is why Barbie decides to live her life as a human instead of being stuck in a perfect, pink-filled, delusional world. The film Barbie is a testament to embracing one’s true identity while finding power in being one’s true self, which perhaps in itself is perfection.
Barbie is in theatres now.
Source: USA Today
