Emerald Fennell Dishes on Playing Barbie's 'Permanently Pregnant' Midge for Greta Gerwig (Exclusive)

“In 50 years, she’ll be the name at the top of the list,” Emerald Fennell says of her ‘Barbie’ director.

This Barbie predicts that Greta Gerwig will be remembered as “one of the greats”.

Actor and director Emerald Fennell, who plays Midge in the hit film Barbietells PEOPLE that she has “incredible admiration” for its writer-director.

“I think in 50 years she’ll be the name at the top of the list,” says Fennell, 38. “She’s so remarkable.”

And if Gerwig’s past direction was nominated for an Oscar Lady Bird and Little woman weren’t enough, Fennell says she first read it Barbie the screenplay (written with Gerwig’s partner Noah Baumbach) confirmed the assessment.

Greta Gerwig and the cast of ‘Barbie’ go behind the scenes of the movie costumes in a new video (exclusive)

Will Ferrell and Greta Gerwig make “Barbie”. Snorlax/MEGA

“It’s the best script I’ve ever read,” Fennell remembers. “I was like, God…. This is so good. It’s so unique, it’s so beautiful. It is so cleverly written. There are so many things in the script alone that tell you everything about the film.”

Starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, the live-action adaptation of the titular Mattel dolls has taken Hollywood by storm, becoming the biggest hit of 2023 at the box office and distributed by Warner Bros.’ highest grossing film. Gerwig broke records as the first solo female director to gross $1 billion and the biggest opening weekend of all time for a female director.

Is Fennell surprised by that Barbiewidespread success? Not in the least, she tells PEOPLE.

“Boys and men of a certain type have had their childhoods tweaked, tweaked, beautifully crafted, billions of dollars spent on them. And that’s great, that’s wonderful, that’s fine. And they are used to this experience. But for the first time ever, it was somebody, it was Greta, Margot, all these people saying, ‘The things that you love, that we care about, are real and valid and worth our time.'”

That’s why the self-described “Barbie fanatic” saw the colorful Barbieland set in person for the first time “incredibly moving,” Fennell recalls. “That’s when I realized that no one cared about my childhood before. No one ever cared about the things we all cared about before.”

She even “cried a little, because I recognized everything”, she admits. “And I’m British, I don’t cry, actually, even in the most difficult circumstances.”

Emerald Fennell 2023.

Gareth Cattermole/Getty

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Fennell’s 2020 Oscar-winning hit A promising young woman — which, like Barbieproduced by Robbie’s production company LuckyChap Entertainment — had a similar attitude about gender, the director adds.

“A promising young woman it was really important to me about why — not just women exclusively, but things about girls, things about girlhood, let’s say — why we never take those things seriously,” Fennell explains. “Why is there a way that serious films look. Serious movies are brown and gray and serious, and frivolous movies are pink and pretty and frothy. And that’s just the way it is.”

Gerwig, she continues, “and people like Margot, everyone at LuckyChap, what we were trying to do with A promising young woman comes and says: ‘No. F— you. This is really important. Just because you think it’s not, it’s not real.’”

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That’s why the audience flocked Barbie and why it will be remembered as a “masterpiece,” as Fennell puts it. “I’m so grateful to be even just for a moment, waving in the background. It’s worth it, because what an extraordinary piece of art.”

Fennell plays one of the residents of the utopian matriarchy of Barbieland, but unlike Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon, Alexandra Shipp, Hari Nef, Dua Lipa and others, she is not a Barbie. First introduced in 1963 as Barbie’s best friend, Midge dolls have been discontinued multiple times over the years — including in 2005, when a pregnant version of Midge, complete with a magnetically removable baby belly, was deemed inappropriate.

For any fans wondering, Fennell confirms that yes, Gerwig does Crown actress as the unusual, quiet Midge because she appeared pregnant in public. (Fennell has two young sons with producer Chris Vernon.)

Emerald Fennell 2021 @quillemons/Instagram Emerald Fennell jokes she’s ‘very sorry’ to Oscar producer Steven Soderbergh during acceptance speech

“Because I was pregnant I created A promising young womanand then pregnant to accept the Oscar, it seemed to me as if I was permanently pregnant,” she says with a laugh.

“I could see how incredibly hilarious it was for me then, just after I stopped being pregnant, to put on a maternity suit and be pregnant again,” she adds. “Since Midge has been pregnant for 50 years, God bless her! Poor fucking creature.”

Fennell’s new film Saltburnstarring Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi, is in theaters now.

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Source: HIS Education