Greta Gerwig discusses the “mic drop” final line in Barbie
Gerwig at least partially credits the "cinema gods" with giving her the movie's ending
Aux News Greta Gerwig
Everyone loves Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, or at least everyone loved seeing it this weekend, but if you ask Gerwig how she pulled off such an impressive feat—balancing the demands of Mattel and Warner Bros. with her desire to tell a thoughtful story around one of the biggest toy brands in the world—she might chalk a surprising amount of it up to the “cinema gods” and the “gifts” they grant you as a filmmaker. In other words, some of what she thinks of as the movie’s best ideas just kind of popped into her head, and she thought it would be a waste to ignore them. One of those “gifts” is the movie big final line, a joke that Gerwig referred to as a “mic drop.”
[The following contains spoilers for Barbie.]
At the end of the movie, Margot Robbie’s Barbie has made the decision to leave Barbieland and stay in the real world as a human, with America Ferrera’s character Gloria dropping her off at what appears to be a human job interview. Instead, Barbie walks into an office, confidently approaches a receptionist, and says: “I’m here to see my gynecologist.”
Gerwig told Indiewire that the line “sort of” came to her in a dream and she realized that there was no other way she wanted the movie to end, and while there were “some discussions” about it, she ultimately decided that some “gifts” from the “cinema gods” shouldn’t really be “down to you.” So she chose to embrace it and stick with that ending.
Going a little deeper with USA Today, Gerwig said that she wanted this to be a “mic drop kind of joke” that still has some emotional weight to it. “When I was a teenage girl,” she explained, “I remember growing up and being embarrassed about my body, and just feeling ashamed in a way that I couldn’t even describe. It felt like everything had to be hidden.” So, by showing Barbie not only going to a gynecologist but doing it with “this big old smile on her face” and going in with “such happiness and joy,” Gerwig hoped she could give other girls a chance to see that “Barbie does it too.” She also noted that she wanted everything in the movie to operate “on at least two levels,” and that final line was all about saying something with both “the levity and the heart.”
31 Comments
I took it to mean she had become a real girl now and now had genitalia, AND a blow against being ashamed of your body.
It’s interesting in contrast to her origin with the sanded off nipples back in the 1950s
That was every childrens toy in the 50’s Barbie isn’t special in that regard
It was the perfect ending to that movie.
Just like “Push” being Ken’s favorite song was just….chef’s kiss.
I saw it this weekend while in Sweden and us three (only) Americans in the audience cackled at the last line, and the rest of the theater was dead silent. I think the American/Barbie cultural touch points maybe didn’t translate to the land of universal healthcare, body positivity, and gender equality. They LOVED the Sweden joke, though!
I’m surprised! I think the joke works because of the classic misdirection setup and because it confirms that she’s human now, after explicitly stating she doesn’t have genitals earlier in the film.
We’ve seen a few American comedies here and I’ve noticed some humor/jokes must not translate well, as evidenced by Americans laughing and Swedes dead silent. I thought the last line in Barbie was well played, but every expat who saw it here this weekend said their theaters were similarly silent after that joke.
I think there’s more humor (dark humor) in the juxtaposition between being excited for your first gyno visit and the reality of what a gyno visit actually entails. To be excited for something when we all know she’s going to have another record-scratch moment. The misdirection plays a big part too, as you say.
She had plastic surgery.
Universal healthcare does exist in the US though. You just need to work for it.
Oh, man, that must’ve been a big cheer — I wonder how that line played in Finland? Were they pissed to be *this close* to paradise?
While I loved the line, my theatre reacted to it like a wet fart, just pretending it didn’t happen and not making a sound. It was very very awkward.
That’s unfortunate. They loved it here in Scotland.
Scotland respects cunts, that’s why.
I mean Scotland is also full of cunts as well
There was that great Frankie Boyle line about how Gordon Brown would be great to deal with Putin:“Vladimir: yer a cunt.” *beat* “But that’s ok – Ah’m a cunt, too.”
really loving the evolution of the phrase “mic drop” to mean “the end of something”
“mic drop”, i.e. “saying a thing”
I thought it meant “the last word.”
Its not an evolution at all. It’s always meant “the last word.”
You seem pretty stupid so you’re probably having trouble understanding things generally.
SEE ALSO: “Slams” now meaning “says something against a thing”.
I guess when you’re done, you just drop the mic on the ground. Savages.
I don’t know that it was necessarily intended, but someone pointed out that the “mic drop” of that final line (which absolutely killed in my theater), also underlines that the entire preceding 2 hour meditation on womanhood has been centered around a doll that does not have a vagina, which I kind of love.
Jesus Christ you couldn’t have put a spoiler alert?I didn’t know there was going to be a final line.
Assuming from your comment that the spoiler alert was a late addition to the piece, was the headline also different? If I saw an article advertising a discussion of the final line of a movie I’d yet to see, I’d probably guess it might contain spoilers.
I’m preeeeetty sure Bam was joking.
Hook, line and fucking sinker.
There is no law but Poe’s Law
The ending line absolutely killed in the theater I saw it in. I mean I haven’t seen a theater that active and lively in years, and I love going to the movies. I’ve been critical of the film being marketed to kids, but I did enjoy it an awful lot.