At one time before Greta Gerwig came on board the “Barbie” movie to direct and co-write it with Noah Baumbach, the project was in the hands of writer Diablo Cody (“Juno,” “Jennifer’s Body”) and was quite different to what we’re getting.
Recently Cody spoke with GQ about her time developing a “Barbie” movie alongside comedian Amy Schumer. Five years ago, she exited the project and famously said she was “literally incapable” of turning in a script for the project.
She says part of the problem was that at the time when she was hired, people wanted a very different kind of “Barbie” movie, including the studio who wanted a “girl-boss feminist twist” on the property.
In other quarters, the pressure was on for the “idea of an anti-Barbie” movie as opposed to something both reverent and satirical like Gerwig’s version appears to be:
“When I was first hired for this, I don’t think the culture had not embraced the femme or the bimbo as valid feminist archetypes yet. If you look up ‘Barbie’ on TikTok you’ll find this wonderful subculture that celebrates the feminine, but in 2014, taking this skinny blonde white doll and making her into a heroine was a tall order.
That idea of an anti-Barbie made a lot of sense given the feminist rhetoric of ten years ago. I didn’t really have the freedom then to write something that was faithful to the iconography; they wanted a girl-boss feminist twist on Barbie, and I couldn’t figure it out because that’s not what Barbie is.”
Cody also says the smash success of 2014’s “The Lego Movie” had a big impact on the development of “Barbie” with any meta approach or joke seen as being too close to that film:
“I heard endless references to The Lego Movie in development. And it created a problem for me because they had done it so well. Any time I came up with something meta, it was too much like what they had done. It was a roadblock for me, but now enough time has passed that they can just cast [‘The Lego Movie’ antagonist] Will Ferrell as the antagonist in a real-life Barbie movie and nobody cares.”
“Barbie” is set to premiere in cinemas everywhere on July 21st.
