The 'Barbie' Movie Almost Had a 'Fart Opera in the Middle,' Greta Gerwig Reveals

Greta Gerwig and her longtime editor Nick Houy said they have unsuccessfully tried to insert fart humor into each of the filmmaker’s last three films

Greta Gerwig really wants to place a fart joke into one of her movies.

As Gerwig, 39, appeared on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast recently, the Barbie director spoke to how she and the film’s editor Nick Houy went about piecing together the new movie, which stars Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken.

“We’ve always tried to get in a proper fart joke and we’ve never done it,” Gerwig said. The Lady Bird and Little Women filmmaker noted that she and longtime collaborator Houy also attempted to insert fart jokes into her prior two movies, though the outlet reported the jokes were removed both times “about two-thirds through the edit.”

“We had like a fart opera in the middle [of Barbie]. I thought it was really funny,” Gerwig recalled. “And that was not the consensus.”

“It was in the wrong place, too,” Houy said of the moment Gerwig wanted to place the flatulance-centric joke in the new movie. “We need to work it into a more significant narrative moment next time.”  

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Elsewhere in the podcast appearance, Houy noted that Barbie‘s unique comedic style required a different approach than their previous two collaborations, which helped make Gerwig a sought-after Hollywood director.

“You have to put it in front of people, that’s the thing about comedy,” Houy said of how the pair decided what jokes did and did not work across the film, which takes Barbie and Ken from Barbie Land to Los Angeles and back. “[Barbie] was so much more a comedy than Lady Bird and Little Women. So we were just, like, ‘Let’s put it in front of people and see how they react.’ “

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Warner Bros.

“Everyone’s different and every screening’s different and we’ve definitely learned, over the years, that you really have to let things have their fair chance and then act accordingly,” he added.

Gerwig’s latest movie is still dominating the box office almost one week after its theatrical release. As of Thursday, the film has made $214 million at the domestic box office and has accumulated $472.6 million grossed worldwide. Barbie‘s $162 million grossed in its opening weekend alone broke a record for the largest debut ever for a movie directed by a woman.

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Warner Bros

Though Gerwig’s work on Barbie and its press tour have only just ended, she will soon focus her writing and directing efforts on two new Chronicles of Narnia movies for Netflix.

“I haven’t even really started wrapping my arms around it. But I’m properly scared of it, which feels like a good place to start,” she said during an appearance on the Inside Total Film podcast recently. “I think when I’m scared, it’s always a good sign. Maybe when I stop being scared, it’ll be like, ‘Okay. Maybe I shouldn’t do that one.’ No, I’m terrified of it. It’s extraordinary. And so we’ll see.”

Barbie is in theaters now.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education