Greta Gerwig’s Barbie was a massive success with Margot Robbie portraying the titular role. Not just her direction, but many other movie elements were highly praised by critics and audiences. But little did anyone know that the movie faced immense challenges in the making which included movie co-writer, Noah Baumbach initially considering it a failure.
It is quite a surprise especially when the former staked everything on him. However, Baumbach had a pretty good reason behind his initial decision.
Noah Baumbach Was Initially Unimpressed by Greta Gerwig’s Barbie
During a special screening at the Writers Guild of America West headquarters, Noah Baumbach spilled the beans while working with his wife, Greta Gerwig for 2023’s Barbie.
Speaking of his initial thoughts on writing for the movie, he shared via Variety,
“I thought it was a terrible idea and Greta signed me up for it.”
He continued,
“I was just like, ‘I don’t see how this is going to be good at all.’”
Margot Robbie, who donned the titular role, was producing the project under her LuckyChap Entertainment. She approached the director to pen the project. While she agreed to her condition, she made it clear that she would only be on board if Baumbach also got associated with it.
He added,
“I kind of blocked it for a while and every time she’d bring it up, I’d be like, ‘You’ve gotta get us out of this.’ And then the pandemic happened…”
Meanwhile, Gerwig’s better half gave numerous reasons as to why he thought that the hit movie would turn out to be otherwise. He explained that no character development or engaging storyline left him skeptical about this project. However, he eventually changed his mind.
Greta Gerwig Changed Noah Baumbach’s Mind
During the pandemic, Gerwig explained her idea to her co-writer by showing a couple of pages which garnered his interest in the movie.
He shared the content that Gerwig presented to him,
“It was Barbie waking up in her Dreamhouse and coming out to her backyard and meeting somebody who was sick and dying.”
He continued,
“I read these pages and I thought, ‘I understand now what this is.’ … The movie is about embracing your mortality and about the mess of it all, so it was exciting.”
From then on, the duo started to enjoy the process as Baumbach even mentioned,
“And then at a certain point, I was like, ‘I think this is the best thing we’ve ever written.’ I know enough always just to follow what Greta says, so even in my bellyaching and revolting, I kind of knew, ‘Well if she really believes it, then there’s something there.’”
Starring a notable cast including Ryan Gosling, Simu Liu, America Ferrera, and Kate McKinnon among several others, the movie was an incredible hit. Its simultaneous release with Cillian Murphy’s Oppenheimer led to the Barbenheimer cultural phenomenon which further helped the movie to become popular among the audience. It grossed $1.44 billion becoming the highest-grossing film of 2023.
Barbie is now available to buy or rent on Prime Video, Apple TV, and the Microsoft Store.
