Barbie: Greta Gerwig Reveals They Cut "Fart Opera" From Movie

07/27/2023 05:08 pm EDT

More and more people are experiencing the magic of Barbie, with the film earning an ever-impressive gross at the worldwide box office. The Barbie film is directed and co-written by Greta Gerwig, and offers quite a lot of quirky and unexpected moments — but now, we know one that didn't make it into the film. In a recent appearance on IndieWire's FilmmakerToolkit episode, Gerwig revealed that she wanted to include an "opera" of fart noises in Barbie, but she understands that it would have gotten in the way of a key emotional moment in the film.

"We've always tried to get in a proper fart joke and we've never done it," Gerwig revealed. "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."  

Did Mattel Cut Any Barbie Movie Scenes?

As Gerwig revealed in a recent interview with The New York Times, the scene where Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt) calls Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) sexist and a "fascist" nearly didn't make it into the film.

"I will say, that's always sounded so dramatic: They were coming anyway, so it wasn't like, "Stop everything, we all have to go to London!"" Gerwig revealed. "But with that scene in particular, my awareness of Barbie as a thing in the world completely corresponded with me knowing the arguments against Barbie. I didn't think there was any way to do this without giving that real estate and having well-articulated, correct arguments from a really smart character given to Barbie against Barbie. Also, I grew up with a mom who was kind of against Barbie, so that's how I knew all that. If you don't give voice to that, then you're nowheresville."

"It wasn't like I ever got the full seal of approval from [Mattel], like, "We love it!"" Gerwig continued. "I got a tentative, "Well, OK. I see that you are going to do this, so go ahead and we'll see how it goes." But that's all you need, and I had faith once it was in there and they saw it that they would embrace it, not fight it. Maybe at the end of the day, my will to have it in was stronger than any other will to take it out."

Will Barbie Get a Sequel?

As Gerwig revealed in the same interview, she does not currently have an idea in her mind for a Barbie sequel.

"At this moment, it's all I've got," Gerwig revealed. "I feel like that at the end of every movie, like I'll never have another idea and everything I've ever wanted to do, I did. I wouldn't want to squash anybody else's dream but for me, at this moment, I'm at totally zero."

What Is the Barbie Movie About?

In Barbie, to live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you're a Ken. From Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig comes Barbie, which hit theaters on July 21st. Barbie stars Oscar-nominees Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, alongside America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Michael Cera, Ariana Greenblatt, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, and Will Ferrell. The film also stars Ana Cruz Kayne, Emma Mackey, Hari Nef, Alexandra Shipp, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Scott Evans, Jamie Demetriou, Connor Swindells, Sharon Rooney, Nicola Coughlan, Ritu Arya, Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Dua Lipa and Oscar-winner Helen Mirren. Gerwig directed Barbie from a screenplay by Gerwig & Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach, based on Barbie by Mattel.