Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s ‘Barbie’ Is ‘Connected’ to ‘White Noise’: Both Films ‘Came Out of the Same Place’
Samantha Bergeson
Barbie escaping both a doll world and an airborne toxic event? Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig certainly see the makings of another Don LeLillo novel.
The co-writers of the upcoming Mattel adaptation, in theaters July 21, revealed that collaborating on Netflix film “White Noise” inspired how they penned the “Barbie” script. And it’s not just big hair that both movies have in common: Baumbach helmed “White Noise,” which starred Gerwig alongside Adam Driver, while Gerwig directs “Barbie” from a script she co-wrote with Baumbach.
“I wrote ‘White Noise,’ and then, once I had that in a place where I thought, OK, I’ve done a lot of the heavy-lifting, Greta and I started work on ‘Barbie,'” Baumbach told Entertainment Weekly. “So that was all sort of happening during that first year of the pandemic. They’re kind of connected in a funny. The execution is different but there are aspects of the world of ‘White Noise’ that actually informed some of how we looked at ‘Barbie.'”
Gerwig agreed, saying, “Everything got written in 2020, they very much feel like they came out of the same place in a way. I mean they physically came out of the same address. But I think it contributed, him working on that and us working on ‘Barbie’ together.”
The “2001: A Space Odyssey”-esque teaser for the upcoming film previewed Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken in a meta satire.
Just don’t consider “Barbie” to have a possible double feature with “White Noise”…or a Stanley Kubrick film, for that matter.
“I’m not going to pitch that,” Gerwig joked. “I’m sure if someone wanted to, it might be interesting. I don’t know, it could be strange. I can feel how they’re connected, but I don’t know if anyone else will see it.”
Three-time Oscar nominee Gerwig recently revealed she was terrified to direct a film about the iconic Barbie dolls.
“I think there’s something about starting from that place where it’s like, ‘Well, anything is possible!’ It felt like vertigo starting to write it,” Gerwig recalled during an episode of Dua Lipa’s “At Your Service” podcast (Dua Lipa is rumored to have a cameo in the film). “Like, where do you even begin? What would be the story?”
The “Little Women” director continued, “I think it was that feeling I had that it would be really interesting terror. Usually, that’s where the best stuff is. When you’re like, ‘I am terrified of that.’ Anything where you’re like, ‘This could be a career-ender,’ then you’re like, ‘OK, I probably should do it.’”
For all the details on “Barbie,” click here.
