‘Barbie’ stars say the message behind the movie is that ‘you are enough’
“Barbie” director Greta Gertwig and stars of the upcoming “Barbie” movie Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, America Ferrera and Michael Cera join Yahoo Entertainment’s Kevin Polowy to talk about the messages behind the movie which emphasize that “you are enough.”
Video Transcript
KEVIN POLOWY: On one hand, this movie is just entertaining as hell. On the other hand, it has a lot to say about body image, about gender roles, about the patriarchy, about the double standards women face. How did you guys approach that two-pronged fight and finding that balance?
GRETA GERWIN: I felt like so much of Barbie as a concept and as an icon and as something that's existed in our collective imagination since 1959 until now was something where it was an opportunity to sort of run head-on about all of the things that make her kind of spiky and complicated and, you know, things that we keep revisiting about how we see ourselves and how we see the dolls we create.
And there's something, to me, this idea of, like, we make a doll-- where humans make dolls and then get mad at them? That just seems to be so mystical in a way. That seems like we think we're so advanced, and yet we still make objects and then have feelings about inanimate objects. It's, like, sort of astonishing and wonderful that we're still there.
KEVIN POLOWY: What are the messages in this movie that you guys both most related with?
MARGOT ROBBIE: You're good. You are enough. You're already doing it right, I guess.
RYAN GOSLING: It kind of gives you a way to laugh at yourself, which helps to do that. And it does that in this very entertaining way. But somehow when it's over, you feel like something's kind of shifted.
KATE MCKINNON: Ugh! Do away with it. Just be-- frickin' just chill, OK? Like, be yourself. Be your whole self. Bring your whole self. Rules be damned. That's the message. And what more poignant message could there be in the world? Come on.
ISSA RAE: Absolutely. America Ferrara's speech, it really resonated with me, where it's just like--
- It's great.
ISSA RAE: --you know, I just want to be me.
AMERICA FERRARA: I wasn't exactly sure what the tone of it would be or should be. You know, but I trusted Greta 100% to know in the editing room, like, what makes sense for the movie. But she gave me so much permission to just play and moment to moment find what it meant for me and what it meant for Gloria. And there are so many versions of it, I mean, funny versions, tragic versions. And, you know, she picked what she picked. And I think that what allowed me to, like, to do what I did was just her trust in me and the permission she gave me.
MARGOT ROBBIE: It's-- literally, Barbie's mantra is, you can be anything. And Barbie is everything. And that's exhausting. Like, the idea that you can be anything and everything is actually-- I find that very overwhelming. So someone saying, you're you and you is great, is a really nice message, I think.
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