"How do you adapt a doll?!" Greta Gerwig on bringing Barbie to life & Ryan Gosling being "SUBLIME!"

[Music] I'm sorry for asking a question you've been asked a million times oh no please take me back to when this first became a possibility for you and how did it evolve from a Barbie movie to this whatever this is where are we going where are we at what whatever one thinks a Barbie movie is going to be I don't think they imagine that it's gonna be this come into my weird house hi well the very first moment was really Margot Robbie came to me and said she along with Warner Brothers had the rights to Barbie and what would I like to write it and I said yes and I had no Obama also come ride it with me it was like a big question mark how do you adapt a doll I mean they just like have very um odd assignment um but I think there was something in it where I thought it was just strange enough that it might have something kind of brilliantly off kilter in it as a possibility and then it was once we had the script that that was one I thought I really want to direct this you put a bow on it and then you went I think I want to shoot it yeah yeah when I set pieces along the writing Journey that really Drew you to directing it for me writing the 2001 bit Yeah the Ken battle on the beach yeah darn sequences yeah watch me looking good Barbie okay there was a quality because we wrote so much of it in lockdown and nobody was going to the movie theaters nobody was seeing anybody really and there was this sort of deep isolation and fear and at that moment we thought well I don't know if anyone will ever go to the movie theaters again I don't know what's going to happen I don't know in what form the world's going to exist and I think it in a way freed us to write something that was so wild and anarchic and joyful I mean there's lines in this movie you know maybe one person will laugh at them but you know when she says I'm having a real pristian flashback and he says remember Bruce Barbie that did not sell very well like things like that I'm like I can't believe we're writing these jokes into this movie and and it was like so much of it felt so wrote it for yourself yeah well in a way we did because it was like we were each other's entertainment at that moment and I thought I can't bear to let anyone else do this I'm so glad I want to say at the risk of being an oversharer I cried at several points because I don't think anyone really has a clue what they're in for here no I'd love to talk to you about the marketing before we even get into that like there are lines like you are not the things you think make you you yeah which I'm sure I'm butchering because I was too busy crying to write them down properly but have you seen people getting really welled up towards the end yes I've seen lots of people cry in this movie I actually I knew people were gonna cry at this movie sometime in 10 screen stuff people got them and you know I always think the best cries for me I mean there's lots of good cries in a movie theater but um one of my favorite ones is the ones that sneak up on you that's exactly this film yeah my eyes were leaking yeah what's this and you're like why am I crying in a Barbie movie or on some level I think that's the you know you're like this movie was meant to just be my and you're like oh no like it just it kind of I think it just catches you off guard I mean I love laughing in a movie theater and I love crying in a movie theater the thing I like you know so I just I try to make the things I I want to see I'm not good enough for anything I think you're just right I just learned to cry first I got one tier and then I got a whole bunch well the lines though that you could see the actor struggling with because they couldn't get them out without corpsing or breaking yes the Mojo Dojo Casa house yeah that's like a 12 take 13 take like are there scenes that spring to mind outside of the set pieces that have a very long number of takes required the thing I think of most is um Margot laughing when Ryan was doing things like he when he would go and yell um you know when he yells Sublime he wrote it down we've had like when we were editing we had to take it like right up to the moment where she starts breaking a lot like she can even see in the movie where she's almost like she sees this corner of her mouth go and the same is true of Ryan because he would do things with totally straight face and totally committed and then he'd he'd break himself based on what he was doing can I talk to a doctor you are talking to a doctor I need a clicky pen No a sharp thing no there he is Doctor somebody gets security but there were also lots of things because they misunderstand the quote unquote real world wow this is the real world there were lots of like really word solity lines that they had trouble getting out which I always felt bad for but I like things that you know Noah and I wrote the script and we like it said exactly as we wrote it but like um there was one that Ryan just couldn't it was like you could stay if you want as my bride wife or my long-term low commitment distance girlfriend and he was like what is this line and I was like it's he's just mashing up things he's vaguely heard about I ended up writing down all my favorite line readings one of them was yay space yay space that's my favorite time yeah obviously hahaha yeah yeah oh with the R's at the end oh yeah that was that Ryan invented that for Ken I remember he did it for me and I was like that's the weirdest thing I've ever seen and you can 100 do this the whole movie but it's funny yay space to me that is like the essence of bar like when she did that I remember when we shot that and she got the like Yay like it was it was so funny and it's so you couldn't exactly explain to someone where the joke is it just is delightful it's not humorous in of itself but it is pure delight it's Delight yeah the other one is the line reading of girlfriend boyfriend girlfriend boyfriend girlfriend boyfriend okay bye goodbye yeah okay bye goodbye yeah bye bye and may I say I love hearing that the rap gift was the Jordans with Barbie on them yeah I know amazing also um Can Ryan made an amazing gift um my Ken he made an amazing gift for everyone like because we shot most of it here in leavesden he made these like shirts is it like energy tour from leavesden was like a horse with a blonde wig on it like anyway but I remember when when he was making these t-shirts um he at one point had had Barbie on it too he had to go through a process with Mattel and they said you can't use Barbie like you know we're very sensitive about Barbie he's like what about Ken they were like oh you can do whatever you want with Ken we don't care about Ken and it was like literally that's what the movie is and they were like you can use that but we it doesn't matter yep catch man whatever yeah they really were like you can't use Barbie we don't want you to make a shirt that anything Barbie but yeah go for it Ken who cares I love you I don't think I can't do whatever but Alan yeah Allen he's holy oh there are no multiples of Alan he's Young you have to wrap at this point but cannot wait for I am kanuff uh I am kind of yes yes yes I know it's so good thanks for watching if you enjoyed this video don't forget to subscribe and click the Bell icon to keep up to date you can listen to my radio one movies and TV podcast screen time on BBC sounds and you can find these interviews in full on BBC iPlayer by searching movies with Ali plum

Channel: BBC Radio 1

Views: 185,429

Keywords: BBC, RADIO 1

Id: flWEzsx0w_s

Length: 7min 52sec (472 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 09 2023