Jodie Foster celebrates the success of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and claims that the movie helped bring female directors to the forefront to the point that they are no longer seen as a risk or even a threat in the Hollywood industry. During her time, women filmmakers were extremely marginalized.
Barbie emerged with $1.4 billion at the worldwide box office and became the top-grossing movie of 2023. Starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, the film has been viewed as a game-changer in the field of cinema.
Jodie Foster Praised Greta Gerwig’s Barbie For Making The Big Change
During an interview with Variety, actress Jodie Foster discussed the impact of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie in the entertainment business and how it would fare differently had it been released during her heyday.
“I’ve had the beauty of being able to be in the business since the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, and so on. The progression or bettering of our audiences translates into a kind of new thinking about who our marginalized voices are. In the old days, they saw women as a risk. Not sure why they saw us as a risk — 50% of the population!”
Foster was glad that people’s view of female directors as well as movies with female leads have changed over time. She hopes that general viewers and critics will keep this kind of mindset.
“That thinking has changed now. With a big success like Barbie, they gave Greta Gerwig, who had made two mostly independent films, they gave her the keys to the kingdom and said ‘We’re going to give you our most important child’ and all the money to support it. That’s new for women. I hope that continues.”
Margot Robbie’s Barbie explores the colorful world of the famed doll as she experiences an existential crisis. She travels to the human world in order to gain an understanding of herself and discover her true purpose.
Sharon Stone And Other Hollywood Actresses Pitched Barbie Movie
Greta Gerwig is not the first one to attempt to make a Barbie movie. Sharon Stone revealed in a comment to America Ferrera’s post on Instagram that she tried to suggest a movie based on the toy franchise, but she was only dismissed.
“I was laughed out [of] the studio when I came [with] the Barbie idea in the ’90s [with] the support of the head of Barbie. How far we’ve come. Thank you, ladies, for your courage and endurance.”
Ferrera was part of Gerwig’s movie, and in her speech at the Critics Choice Awards, she thanked the filmmaker “for proving through your incredible mastery as a filmmaker that women’s stories have no difficulty achieving cinematic greatness and box-office history at the same time.”
Interestingly, many other actresses pitched for a Barbie movie in the past. Anne Hathaway was initially attached to a Barbie movie project that did not get off the ground. In 2016, Amy Schumer was rumored to play the iconic doll.
Barbie won its first-ever Golden Globe award for cinematic and box office achievement. It was also nominated for nine categories, including Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Original Song.
