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The news of a live-action Barbie movie starring Margot Robbie as the iconic children’s doll was already enough to send the internet into meltdown mode. But when her jock boyfriend Ken was confirmed to be played by Ryan Gosling and Little Women‘s Greta Gerwig was announced as director, the project was shot to White Lotus-Jennifer Coolidge levels of internet iconic before filming had even started.
But despite the culture’s positive response to the idea of a 2022 version of Barbie hitting screens, let alone the girls’ and the gays’ screams of joy upon seeing a fluoro pink lycra-clad Robbie and Gosling in rollerblades on set, Gerwig says she initially thought the film could be a potential “career-ender.”
Speaking on Dua Lipa’s At Your Service podcast, the Oscar-nominated director described the “terror” she felt upon accepting an offer from Robbie, who is both the film’s star and a producer, to be involved in the project, telling Lipa, “It was something that was exciting so I had that terror. There’s something about starting from that place where it’s like, well, anything’s possible.”
Gerwig, who’s currently in post-production, added, “I had what felt like vertigo when starting to write it, like, where do you even begin? What would be the story? I knew that it would be really interesting terror. Usually that’s where the best stuff is. Anything where I’m like this could be a career ender – I probably should do it.”
Gerwig explained she’d wanted to work with Robbie for a long time, after previously meeting her during a project that didn’t get off the ground, so she said yes immediately when this opportunity arose. Simultaneously putting forward her partner Noah Baumbach for the job too, without letting him know, leading him to ask why they weren’t doing a different project together, instead.
“It was in March 2020 that Noah said, ‘Are we meant to be writing a Barbie movie?’ she told Lipa. “I said yes and he’s like, ‘I don’t have any ideas for that, why didn’t you sign us up to write a different thing?’ And I was like ‘I have a feeling about this.”
So far most details about the upcoming film have been kept under wraps, however, in a previous interview, Robbie said it won’t be what we expect. “All we can say is whatever you’re thinking, it’s not that,” said told th The Hollywood Reporter. “Something like Barbie where the IP, the name itself, people immediately have an idea of, ‘Oh, Margot is playing Barbie, I know what that is.’ But our goal is to be like, whatever you’re thinking, we’re going to give you something totally different — the thing you didn’t know you wanted.”
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