Greta Gerwig on Oct. 8, 2023.Photo:Joe Maher/Getty Images
Joe Maher/Getty Images
IsGreta Gerwigliving in a Barbie dream?
“This is incredible and I can’t tell you how much it means that you did this,” she added, noting that Kushner recently sent her and Baumbach, 54, an email praising their efforts on the Margot Robbie film thatdominated the box officethis summer.
“Noah read [the email] to me out loud and I was like, ‘frame it, frame the computer,’ " she added of the note from Kushner, the writer behindAngels in America,LincolnandThe Fabelmans.
While Baumbach echoed his thoughts from another recent Q&A that heoriginally was not sure about taking on the project, he said Thursday he eventually advocated for Gerwig to direct the movie herself after they completed work onBarbie’s screenplay.
Tony Kushner, Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach on Nov. 2, 2023.Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for BAM
Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for BAM
“There was a point where I was like, ‘You have to direct it,’ because we have to protect it. Because as we started to really enjoy [writing the movie], and really it was like we’re totally mad, we were totally mad,” Baumbach said. “We were, as many of us [were] in the pandemic, there was that isolation, so it kind of gave us this way of connection to a kind of future world where we hoped movies would be back and we’d all be back in a theater.”
Gerwig and Baumbach craftedBarbie’s script during the first year of the pandemic; Gerwig was eventuallynamed the movie’s directorin July 2021. The pair said writing the movie during an uncertain period in the film industry helped them create the film’s bold approach to Mattel’s iconic toy brand.
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“We were writing it when no one was going to movies and there were no movies and no one was making movies,” Gerwig recalled.
“There was also a feeling of ‘There’s no movies, nobody’s making anything.’ So there was this sort of go-for-broke quality in how we did it. Then once we were doing it, we felt like, ‘We love this — and also, definitely no one will ever let us make this.’ "
“That also gave us a level of protection and fearlessness because I think at one point we were like, ‘Let’s write the greatest script nobody can ever make or no one will ever let us make,’ " added Gerwig, who isnext working on aChronicles of Narniaadaptation.
Greta Gerwig on Nov. 2, 2023.Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for BAM
Barbiewent on to become the highest-grossing movie of 2023 so far, havingmade $1.4 billion dollars globallysince its July release, perBox Office Mojo.
To kick off awards season, Ryan Gosling received a nomination for his supporting role as Ken at the upcomingGotham Awards.
“I think there was a protection in that kind of unlikeliness of the whole thing that it gives you some cover to do things you wouldn’t do if you thought it was going to actually happen,” Gerwig said of the film’s surprising success.
source: people.com
