Greta Gerwig Says She Hid within the Again of ‘Barbie’ Screenings Throughout Its Opening Weekend, Teases New Undertaking

Greta Gerwig says the reception to her monster hit Barbie has been “probably the most thrilling factor” to expertise.

Talking at a particular display screen speak on Sunday on the BFI London Movie Pageant, the place she acquired a rockstar welcome (as did her interviewee, Succession creator Jesse Armstrong), she mentioned the movie’s set had been “probably the most joyful” she’d ever been on. “So, I believed, if I could make a film that’s half as enjoyable to look at because it was to make, I believe perhaps we’ve acquired a shot.”

Nonetheless, Gerwig additionally admitted that regardless of loving the method of constructing the movie, she nonetheless skilled enormous quantities of self-doubt over her inventive selections, citing the “I’m Simply Ken” dance scene the place the quite a few Kens are combating on the seaside. “That sequence, particularly, was simply crammed with selections that thrilled me and made me so completely satisfied, however then I’d be driving residence on the finish of the day and pondering… ‘Oh no!’”

Regardless of Gerwig’s nervousness, Barbie went on to interrupt quite a few information, amassing greater than $1.4 billion, making it the highest-grossing movie of 2023, Warner Bros.’ highest-grossing movie of all time and the highest-grossing movie by a solo feminine director.

“It’s like this unbelievable sense of ‘the track that it’s in my coronary heart is in different folks’s hearts,’” she mentioned of the response to the movie. “It’s been extremely transferring.”

Throughout Barbie‘s opening weekend, Gerwig mentioned she was in New York, however she didn’t wait to listen to concerning the response to the movie from different folks, so she went to get solutions for herself.

“I went round to totally different theatres and form of stood within the again, and would then additionally flip up the amount up if I felt it wasn’t taking part in on the good degree,” she claimed. At one such screening, she heard one girl howl with laughter over the joke concerning the Proust Barbie, one of many quite a few particular one-liners she inserted within the movie. “And I used to be like: ‘That joke was for you!’”

Gerwig mentioned she was presently engaged on one other mission, with out giving many particulars away. “I’m within the writing course of,” she admitted, “and it’s exhausting as a result of I’m having recurring nightmares.”