Warning: This article contains spoilers for Barbie's third act. Make sure you’ve seen the movie before reading any further.
Towards the end of Barbie, Margot Robbie’s Stereotypical Barbie is struggling with what it means to be human. To explain it to her, Barbie inventor Ruth Handler shows her a montage of home videos of real women of all ages set to Billie Eilish’s haunting 'What Was I Made For?'
"I had this idea that I wanted that moment in the film to be truly made by the people who made the movie," she says. "So I said to everyone – cast, crew, everyone from editorial – 'If you have things that you’re comfortable with sharing, this is an idea.' We got the most beautiful moments from people's lives. It was people’s friends, aunts, mothers, daughters, sisters. It was just extraordinary."
Gerwig added that there was a particular purpose behind collating these as well in the final montage. "With something like Barbie, that’s such a behemoth of an international brand and icon and it can be something that feels so kind of impersonal," she continued. "It was a way to be like, 'This has only ever been made by human beings.' Movies, dolls. Human beings make them. They’re not handed down from on high, they are just made."
The director added that having Ruth involved in this particular moment was very important as well, as she had named the dolls after her daughter, Barbara. "Every film I make has to come from a personal place," Gerwig added.
If you've already seen Barbie and want some more deep dives into the film, check out our explainers on:
- All the Barbie Easter eggs
- Greta Gerwig on her Narnia movies
- Greta Gerwig on a potential Barbie sequel
- Why Barbie and Oppenheimer make the perfect double bill
- Barbenheimer: the day cinema stood still
- A complete history of the Barbie movies that could have been
- Why Barbie’s marketing campaign should become a blueprint
