Greta Gerwig Reveals It Was Suggested She Cut Emotional ‘Barbie’ Scene Where Margot Robbie Cries

“If I cut the scene, I don’t know what this movie is about,” said Gerwig of a quietly emotional moment in ‘Barbie’

Greta Gerwig stuck to her guns when it came to a key moment in Barbie.

Crafting a big-screen adaptation about the iconic doll meant the Academy Award-nominated writer-director had to balance her vision with the demands of production company Mattel Films and distributor Warner Bros. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Gerwig revealed that the powers that be asked her to consider cutting a scene that she called “the heart of the movie,” depicting Margot Robbie’s Barbie having a tearful moment sitting on a bench with an older woman.

“It’s a cul-de-sac of a moment, in a way — it doesn’t lead anywhere,” Gerwig, 39, admitted. “And in early cuts, looking at the movie, it was suggested, ‘Well, you could cut it. And actually, the story would move on just the same.’ And I said, ‘If I cut the scene, I don’t know what this movie is about.’”

Robbie’s scene partner, Oscar-winning costume designer Ann Roth, plays a stranger who greets Barbie at the bus stop as she’s taking in the overwhelming world outside the utopian Barbie Land. When the emotional Barbie calls her beautiful, she responds with a laugh: “I know it.”

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“The way Margot plays that moment is so gentle and so unforced,” Gerwig told Rolling Stone. “There’s the more outrageous elements in the movie that people say, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe Mattel let you do this,’ or, ‘I can’t believe Warner Bros. let you do this.’ But to me, the part that I can’t believe that is still in the movie is this little cul-de-sac that doesn’t lead anywhere — except for, it’s the heart of the movie.”

She added that Roth, the costume designer behind The English Patient, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and over 100 more films, is “a legend… I love that scene so much.”

In an interview with the New York Times, Gerwig responded to an interpretation of the scene that Roth’s character is a godlike figure guiding Robbie’s Barbie on her journey of self-discovery in the real world. “The idea of a loving God who’s a mother, a grandmother — who looks at you and says, ‘Honey, you’re doing ok’ — is something I feel like I need and I wanted to give to other people,” she said, calling their interaction a “transaction of grace.”

Although it’s now 2023’s highest-grossing opener — and set the record for biggest debut ever for a female filmmaker — cowriting the movie with partner Noah Baumbach was a "terrifying" prospect for Gerwig, she admitted in a November 2022 interview on Barbie star Dua Lipa's At Your Service podcast.

"There's something about starting from that place where it's like, 'Well, anything is possible,'" she explained. "It felt like vertigo, starting to write it. Where do you even begin? And what would be the story?"

She continued: “That feeling that I had was knowing that it would be really interesting terror. Usually, that's where the best stuff is, when you're like, 'I am terrified of that.' Anything where you're like, 'This could be a career-ender,' then you're like, 'Okay, I probably should do it.'"

Speaking with PEOPLE for a special Barbie issue (out now) alongside Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Issa Rae, America Ferrera and more cast members, Gerwig said she hopes the film "is the launch of a world and a bunch of different Barbie movies… I want to go back to Barbie Land.”

Barbie is in theaters now. 

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