Barbie: Greta Gerwig Reveals the One Scene She Could Not Cut From the Film

Barbie is now playing in theaters, delighting audiences and critics alike — and not to mention crushing it at the box office, with the film bringing in $155 million in North America so far and making the film the best opening for a film directed by a woman, Greta Gerwig. It's also proving to have quite a few memorable moments that have left fans talking well after they've left theater including one that Gerwig recently revealed studio executives suggested she cut from the film. Speaking with Rolling Stone (via Variety), Gerwig revealed that there was one scene that she just couldn't cut because without it, she didn't know what Barbie was about.

Warning: spoilers for Barbie beyond this point.

In the film, as was seen in the early trailers for Barbie, there is a moment where Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) encounters an elderly woman on a park bench with Barbie, who is just starting to experience human emotion for the first time, telling the woman that she's beautiful. The woman confidently replies that she knows that she's beautiful, which prompts happy tears from Barbie. It's a powerful moment — and for Gerwig, it's deeply important to the film, even if it has no real bearing on the actual plot.

"I love that scene so much," Gerwig said. "And the older woman on the bench is the costume designer Anne Roth. She's a legend. It's a cul-de-sac of a moment, in a way — it doesn't lead anywhere. And in early cuts, looking at the movie, it was suggested, 'Well, you could cut it. And actually, the story would move on just the same.' And I said, 'If I cut the scene, I don't know what this movie is about.'"

She continued, "That's how I saw it. To me, this is the heart of the movie. The way Margot plays that moment is so gentle and so unforced. There's the more outrageous elements in the movie that people say, 'Oh my God, I can't believe Mattel let you do this,' or, 'I can't believe Warner Bros. let you do this,' But to me, the part that I can't believe is still in the movie is this little cul-de-sac that doesn't lead anywhere — except for, it's the heart of the movie."

There is One Thing That Did Get Cut From Barbie: An F-Bomb Early On

While Gerwig was able to preserve the now-iconic bench scene, there is one things that did get cut from the film. Because Barbie is rated PG-13, the film allows for one f-bomb in the script and according to Gerwig, she initially got it out of the way during the film's opening, but ultimately cut it from the intro.

"Suffice to say, there was a sort of extended joke with Marie Curie, which didn't end up being part of (the final cut). But yes, there was a page-one f-bomb that sort of set the tone for the whole thing," Gerwig recalled to CinemaBlend's ReelBlend podcast. "What the line was, it was actually Helen Mirren saying to Marie Curie, 'Pipe the f-ck down, Marie Curie!' That was like my favorite (line). ... But we knew we only got one f-bomb, and we were like, 'Let's use it at the very beginning.' And there's just something, to me, (about) Helen Mirren saying, 'Pipe the f-ck down, Marie Curie.'"

She added, "The audio's there, the, 'Pipe the f-ck down,' in a proper, British voice. But it was something in the editing that didn't end up making the cut. That was, I would say, the line that everyone was like, 'Oh, no, no, no, no.'"

What is Barbie 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 . 

Barbie is in theaters now.