Yes, There Was Almost a “Fart Opera” in Barbie

Jo Vito
·2 min read
Barbie Fart Opera Greta Gerwig cut scene Nick Houy watch
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The post Yes, There Was Almost a “Fart Opera” in Barbie appeared first on Consequence.

Now that Greta Gerwig’s record-breaking Barbie is out, all the twists, turns, and painfully-relatable themes are being digested by a nation of movie-goers… just like something was, ehm, digested by some characters in an early cut of the film. That’s right, folks, Gerwig has confirmed that there was once a version of Barbie that included a “fart opera.”

The news came in an interview with IndieWire, in which Gerwig revealed that of the many scenes she and editing collaborator Nick Houy had hoped to include in the film, they did have to cut one (pun intended). “We had, like, a fart opera in the middle [of Barbie],” Gerwig said. “I thought it was really funny. And that was not the consensus.”

While neither Gerwig nor Houy have offered more context as to what exactly a “fart opera” is, nor how it would’ve come to be in the film, they have explained why they were so fascinated with the idea. The two first worked together for 2017’s Lady Bird, and teamed up again in 2019 for Little Women, and according to Gerwig: “We’ve always tried to get in a proper fart joke and we’ve never done it.”

For his part, Houy seems to have been part of the aforementioned “consensus” that felt like a Wagnerian cutting of the cheese might’ve not been the best thing for Barbie. “It was in the wrong place, too,” he told IndieWire. “We need to work it into a more significant narrative moment next time.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Gerwig and Houy discussed how they chose to prioritize “clarity” when editing the film, to ensure that audiences could follow all the ups and downs. It was a big task to fit so much into one movie, especially with the massive brand partnership with Mattel looming overhead… so much so that when Gerwig first sent the script to Houy, his first response was: “Are they going to let you do it?”

In the end, they did let her do it… or at least most of it. We might never know what kind of flatulent competition Mozart or Puccini may have had if the “fart opera” had survived, but we do know that the version of Barbie that hit theaters last week is, as Consequence’s Liz Shannon Miller put it, “one of the year’s most life-affirming films.” Read her full review, and listen to Ryan Gosling’s (fart-free) cover of Matchbox Twenty’s “Push” as Ken below.

Yes, There Was Almost a “Fart Opera” in Barbie
Jo Vito

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