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Greta Gerwig, the writer Oscar-nominated director of Lady Bird and 2019’s celebrated Little Women remake, signed on to write the Barbie movie in 2019 along with her partner, Marriage Story writer-director Noah Baumbach. In July of last year, however, Variety confirmed that Gerwig would also be directing the film. America Ferrara, Ariana Greenblatt, Alexandra Shipp, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Rhea Perlman, Sharon Rooney, Scott Evans, Ana Cruz Kayne, Connor Swindells, Ritu Arya, and Jamie Demetriou also are slated to appear in the movie. Emerald Fennell, writer-director of 2020’s Promising Young Woman, has a role as well. If you've already seen "Barbie" and want to read more, Gerwig took us on a spoiler-filled deep dive into the movie's brilliant last line, along with the real-life history of the doll's creator. Rob Thomas also opened up about Gosling's inspired cover of Matchbox Twenty in the film, and we took a look at Ferrera's powerful monologue that is resonating with viewers. Who created Barbie?
Open the door to the new Barbie Dreamhouse for unlimited storytelling possibilities! Standing 109cm tall and 104cm wide, this dreamy dollhouse inspires 360-degree play with three floors and 10 indoor and outdoor living areas. There’s so much to explore. Greenblatt told ELLE of filming Barbie, “Everyone had such a great time making it, and it really shows on camera.” She added that while filming in London, Robbie and Gerwig arranged for the cast to screen films relating to Barbie every Sunday at Electric Cinema in Notting Hill. To help Robbie get into character, Gerwig recommended listening to an episode of the podcast This American Life where a woman doesn't introspect. “You know how you have a voice in your head all the time?” Robbie told Vogue. “This woman, she doesn’t have that voice in her head.” Robbie and Gosling are not the only big names in the movie, however. In fact, the list of big names in the film is honestly kind of absurd. According to some gossip that New York Times journalist Kyle Buchannan heard at the Cannes Film Festival, there are going to be multiple Barbies and Kens in the film. Insecure star Issa Rae and Hari Nef, the trans actress and model who starred in Transparent, will reportedly both play Barbies, too. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu and Ncuti Gatwa, who was recently announced as the 14th Doctor in the upcoming Doctor Who season, will be alternate Kens. Yes. Robbie and Gosling confirmed in a promo video that they will be bringing Barbie to eight cities: Toronto, Sydney, Seoul, Mexico City, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, and New York. Is this a press tour, a meet and greet, or some sort of traveling performance? They don’t clarify. All we know so far is that, unfortunately, Gosling is not bringing his roller blades.If Barbie doesn't exactly look like a baby boomer, it might be because Barbie was meant to be 19 when she was released, and plastic dolls aren't usually subject to the aging process. There’s an appetite for that sort of nostalgia, as a 2019 spin-off of the Brady Bunch shows. The now-adult children from the 1970s sitcom reunited to remake the interior of a five-bedroom house, which only ever featured in exterior shots of the family, to make it look like the family home that only ever existed inside a Paramount studio.
If you thought the Barbie Land lettering in the film was just a cute design introductory to the fantasy world, you didn't look close enough. "When you go into Barbie Land, you go into the dot of the 'i' of Barbie Land," production designer Sarah Greenwood tells House Beautiful. "So the streets are written as Barbie Land, and the 'i' is the circle that they live in." Barbie Land is layered with 3-D and 2-D elements. Barbie is a bit outside the norm for Gerwig and Baumbach. Gerwig, who is also an actress, is best known for her quirky and insightful comedy-dramas. Baumbach tends to make highly mannered and somewhat dry films like The Squid and the Whale. Neither’s filmography necessarily screams “the obvious person to make a movie about a famous toy.” But, that’s perhaps what makes Barbie so intriguing. It felt like we had to give the counterargument to Barbie, and not give it short shrift, but give it real intellectual and emotional power,” she said. “And Mattel was incredibly open to it. I said, ‘We have to explore it, because it’s a lie any other way. And we can’t make it a lie.’ I think they heard it.” Is there a trailer? The unabashed pinkness of the movie reclaims the colour from the way it has been used to trivialise femininity, Quinn says. So why does the movie focus on the modernist-style Dreamhouse? What strings does this design pull for the viewer? Sydney-based Catriona Quinn, an interior design historian, says it mixes nostalgia with ambition for many of the adults watching it today.
Built at the iconic Warner Bros. Studios lot outside of London, the Barbie dream houses were inspired by the midcentury modern architecture and cul-de-sacs in Palm Springs. Greenwood and set decorator Katie Spencer specifically looked to Richard Neutra’s 1946 Kaufmann House, which happens to be one of the filming locations featured in Don’t Worry Darling. They landed on this design route early on in the process since they knew they weren't looking to replicate an existing Mattel Barbie dream house. The midcentury modern architecture lent itself nicely to the basic elements of the toy houses that the team focused on, like an open flow between rooms with no walls. Logistically, it was also important for the production to easily shoot from one house to another. Placing the houses in a circle allowed for this and ensured Barbie could see all of her friends. The Warner Bros. project was first announced in 2019, but numerous other projects—and, not to mention, a pandemic—have kept Gerwig and Robbie busy in the interim. Variety confirms that Gerwig and co-writer Noah Baumbach would finalize the script after completing work on the Baumbach-directed 2022 film White Noise. Who's playing Ken?
The movie Dreamhouse doesn’t have the indoor plants that were very popular at that time. And Barbie’s bedroom, with velvet headboard, glittery bedspread, side tables and lamps aren’t modernist, but push another button – that of the boudoir, the hankering for a private space of luxury, Quinn says. The Dreamhouse offer is also not a competition, the listing explicitly states; people merely need to log in to Airbnb at 10 a.m. PDT on July 17 to access the chance to book one of two stays on offer. But only a bit. Modernist houses didn’t try to hide their “materiality”, or cover over what they were made with. The original Barbie Dreamhouse, a cardboard fold-out home, was bright blue and yellow, with wood-coloured furniture. In July, she told Rolling Stone that Mattel was “incredibly open” to feminist critique because “it’s a lie any other way.” Well, the movie technically caused an international shortage of a shade of pink paint, so there’s that. Costume designer Jacqueline Durran also t old Vanity Fair that the beach is a crucial setting in the movie, so “Malibu Barbie is key.” In what will surely be great news for many mood-board enthusiasts, she noted that the outfits in Barbieland all use summertime pastel color combinations that riff “off the idea of a French Riviera beach in the early 1960s.” In addition to clothing items sourced by Durran’s team, Robbie’s Barbie wears some vintage pieces from Chanel, where Robbie is a fashion ambassador. As for Barbie’s boy toy? Expect to see the results of a lot of intentional shopping for retro sportswear (though Durran gives Gosling full credit for coming up with the Ken-branded underwear).
It’s see-through, so we can see each other,” Robbie explains in a movie trailer that explores the set of the Barbie movie, which opens next month. “All the Barbies in their own Barbie dream houses wake up in the morning and they can wave at each other.”
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