Margot Robbie’s Barbie and its humongous success has changed the game for Hollywood and actor Randall Park seems to be joining the party, heaping its praise, while also cautioning those who take a misguided interpretation of its success. Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig which released on July 21, 2023 along with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, has destroyed every box office predictions and expectations and has already crossed the 1 billion mark, a feat which no one saw coming. Audiences and critics have been praising its satirical social commentary on gender roles and patriarchy.
Barbie and the Question of What it Tries To Represent
Randall Park, talked about his upcoming directorial debut Shortcomings, in an article from Rolling Stone. He also mentioned the major success of the “Barbeinheimer” hype train and particularly, how his film is releasing at a time of intense box office competitiveness.
Randall Park, in response to a question about the time and again stereotypical misrepresentation of the Asian community in Hollywood, mentioned how Hollywood always takes the wrong lessons from the success of a film. He points out how the Margot Robbie starrer Barbie and its sucesss has led to studios gaining newer interest in developing projects about toys all of a sudden. He told Rolling Stone,
“Totally. I feel like, just in general, this industry is taking the wrong lessons. For example, Barbie is this massive blockbuster, and the idea is: Make more movies about toys! No. Make more movies by and about women!“
The quote points to the hypocrisy and the failure of Hollywood to not realize the reasons behind the film’s success. Instead they mainly focus on ways to earn a quick buck rather than taking their time to conceive and plan a proper follow up project, if any.
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Barbie Became a Major Myth Breaker Regarding Women led Projects
Barbie‘s huge success at the box office is historic in the way that it became the first film helmed by a woman and led by a female character that has grossed over a billion dollars. Park’s comments points out the misconception that Hollywood has about how and why the film has been successful. As he puts it, clearly the studios have regarded the toy as the moneymaker rather than the underlying social themes about the gender and the patriarchy beneath all the glamour and style of the film.
Women led and directed films have not had a very high reputation in Hollywood. But in recent times it has slowly begun to change. Greta Gerwig’s works including Lady Bird (2017) and Little Women (2019) have received Oscar recognition and nominations. Chloe Zhao won Best Director and Best Picture at the 2021 Oscars for Nomadland (2020) and recently, Michelle Yeoh won Best Actress at the 2023 Oscars. Unfortunately, Park’s comments signify that the misconception still exists in the minds of people and people need to get over it and embrace good work irrespective of gender.
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Hollywood Should Appreciate Films and Understand Where they Come From
Hollywood has long been criticized for elevating and undermining roles according to sex, race and ethnicity. Park’s comments have further exposed the various pre conceived notions that the studios have been imbibing for many years, as to how and what makes a successful film. Audiences want to see something new and bring newer facets to representation which is personal ad relatable.
As Hollywood slowly and steadily continues to embrace diversity and various facets of representation of different cultures and narratives around them, there always remains the fear of misinterpretation and undermining due to the deeply ingrained regressive and stereotypical views of society and gender that might hamper what a film is trying to say.
Barbie is playing in theatres worldwide.
Source: Rolling Stone
