Greta Gerwig Had 'Big Meeting' to Defend Keeping Ryan Gosling's 'I'm Just Ken' Dance Scene in “Barbie”

"There was a big meeting that was like, 'Do you need this?' And I was like, 'Everything in me needs this,' " the director recalled

Greta Gerwig was committed to her vision for the "I'm Just Ken" scene in Barbie.

The director and co-writer, 40, spoke about the Ryan Gosling scene at the BFI London Film Festival on Sunday, recalling, per Variety, “It just said in the script, ‘And then it becomes a dream ballet and they work it out through dance.' "

But in a "big meeting" with the powers that be, Gerwig said she was asked " ‘Do you need this?’ " about the sequence that features Gosling, 42, and his fellow Kens duking it out on the beach before transporting viewers to another realm, where the Kens dance it out.

"I was like, ‘Everything in me needs this,' " Gerwig continued. "They were like, ‘What do you even mean? What is a dream ballet?’ And I was like, ‘A dream ballet? Where do I begin!' "

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Related: 'Barbie' Music Producer Mark Ronson Says 'I'm Just Ken' Was Initially Meant to Be a Background Song

Gerwig noted similarities involving "a dream ballet inside of a dream ballet" when compared to 1952's Singin' in the Rain, explaining, "I was like, 'If people could follow that in Singin' in the Rain, I think we'll be fine. I think people will know what this is.' "

But the scene wasn't without worry for the filmmaker. "Even though everything felt right to me and was giving me so much joy in the way we were doing it, it was also like, 'Oh no, this could be just terrible, but now I'm committed,' " she added.

Barbie was the film of the summer — and of 2023 in general, cementing its status as Warner Bros.' highest-earning theatrical release of all time, not adjusted for inflation, by late August.

The film has now raked in more than $1.435 million in global tickets sales, having passed The Super Mario Bros. Movie as the highest-grossing film of 2023 thus far.

During her appearance at the BFI London Film Festival on Sunday, Gerwig also revealed that she decided to do her own covert field research during the film's opening weekend in July by hiding in the back of the theater during screenings in order to see the audience's reaction.

“I went around to different theaters and sort of stood in the back, and would then also turn up the volume if I felt it wasn’t playing at the perfect level,” she recounted, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Gerwig said at one of those screenings she heard a woman cracking up over a particularly zingy one-liner about the Proust Barbie. “And I was like, ‘That joke was for you!' ” she told the festival audience.

The director said Barbie was "the most joyful" experience she's ever had on a set.

“So, I thought, if I can make a movie that is half as fun to watch as it was to make, I think maybe we’ve got a shot," Gerwig said.

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