Like a dream: Greta Gerwig and husband Noah Baumbach talk about the box-office success of Barbie

American actor and writer Greta Gerwig, and her Barbie co-writer and real-life partner Noah Baumbach, recently appeared at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City.

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After American author Tony Kushner began the discussion by calling Barbie a ‘masterpiece’, Gerwig said, “This definitely feels like a moment that I could potentially wake up from and think — ‘No that was a dream’.” Kushner had also recently sent her and Baumbach, 54, an email praising their efforts on the Margot Robbie film.

Gerwig said, “Noah read the email to me out loud and I was like, ‘frame it, frame the computer’.” While Baumbach stated that he was initially hesitant to take on the project, he later lobbied for Gerwig to direct the film herself after they finished work on Barbie’s screenplay. “There was a point where I was like, ‘You have to direct it,’ because we have to protect it. Because as we started to really enjoy writing the movie, and really it was like we were totally mad,” Baumbach added.

Gerwig and Baumbach crafted Barbie’s script during the first year of the pandemic; Gerwig was eventually named the movie’s director in July 2021. The pair said writing the movie during an uncertain period in the film industry helped them create the film’s bold approach to Mattel’s iconic toy brand.

On the film’s surprising success, Gerwig recalled, “We were writing Barbie when no one was going to movies and there were no movies and no one was making movies. So there was this sort of go-for-broke quality in how we did it. Then once we were doing it, we felt like, ‘We love this and also, definitely no one will ever let us make this. But that also gave us a level of fearlessness. I think there was a protection in that kind of unlikeliness of the whole thing that it gives you some cover to do things you wouldn’t do if you thought it was going to actually happen.”

Gerwig is next working on a Chronicles of Narnia adaptation.