Greta Gerwig says she refused to cut BARBIE scene because ‘it’s the heart of the movie’

Oscar-winning director and screenwriter Greta Gervig (Lady Bird, Little Women) has another hit on his hands with the highly anticipated and well-received Barbie movie released last weekend. The film was hilarious with a lot of heart, and though it went through many changes from its conception stage to the final on-screen product, Gerwig says she was asked to cut two scenes from the film that she absolutely couldn’t change her mind about.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Gerwig revealed that it was suggested she cut the scene in which Barbie (Margot Robbie) meets an old woman on a bench and tells her she is beautiful.

“I love that scene so much. And the older woman on the bench is costume designer Ann Roth. She is a legend. It’s a dead-end moment, in a sense, leading nowhere. And in the early cuts, watching the movie, it was hinted, “Well, you could cut that.” And actually, 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. For me, this is the heart of the film. The way Margot interprets that moment is so gentle and so spontaneous. There are the most outrageous elements in the movie that people are like, “Oh, my God, I can’t believe Mattel let you do that” or “I can’t believe Warner Bros. let you do that.” But for me, the part that I can’t believe is still in the movie is this little dead end that leads to nowhere except that it’s the heart of the movie.

The scene with the old woman has nothing to do with the plot of the film, but it is crucial to understanding Barbie’s perception of the real world and what she believes beauty is like after leaving the perfect utopia that is Barbieland.

“The idea of ​​a loving God who is a mother, a grandmother — who looks at you and says, ‘Honey, you’re okay’ — is something I feel like I needed and wanted to give to other people,” Gerwig added to the New York Times about the importance of the scene, which she describes as a “transaction of grace.” If I cut that scene, I don’t know why I’m making this movie. If I don’t have that scene, I don’t know what it is or what I did.

Executives also sought to remove a scene in the film in which a teenage girl disembowels Barbie in the face. A Time magazine cover story on the making of “Barbie” revealed that Mattel president and chief operating officer Richard Dickson flew to the film’s London set at one point during production to argue with Gerwig and Robbie at the scene because he believed it was off-brand for the company. The director and star of him convinced Dickson to keep the scene in the film, playing it for him live on set. “When you look on the page, the nuance isn’t there, the delivery isn’t there,” Robbie said.

I think both scenes were vital to the film. One showed Barbie gaining the depth of what it means to be human, both flawed and beautiful, and the other set out to explain the problematic side of what Barbie stood for, unbeknownst to her creators, or even Barbie herself. The movie is great and you can see it now. Barbie is playing in theaters nationwide.