Barbie director Greta Gerwig asked director of Jim Carrey’s The Truman Show for advice on creating Barbieland
Gerwig spoke with Peter Weir, director of the The Truman Show, for help with creating the fictional Barbie world for the film.
If you've not seen the Barbie movie yet, where have you been?
Since its release last month, the movie has received huge praise from fans all over the globe, having enjoyed one of the biggest marketing budgets for a film in recent years ($125 million to $150 million). Brands like Heinz, Airbnb and Crocs all jumped on the pink bandwagon to promote it.
The storyline follows Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) as they leave 'Barbieland' to visit the real world and come face to face with the struggles of day-to-day living. However, one of the biggest areas for which the film has received praise is the aesthetically pleasing design of Barbieland. Director Greta Gerwig says she got her inspiration for the layout from consulting Peter Weir, director of Jim Carrey favourite The Truman Show.
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She told AP News that she rang the director for advice on how best to bring Barbieland to life, given his work creating the artificial town for the 1998 hit movie. She told the publication: "He was so generous getting on the phone with me. I had this idea of making Barbieland basically an interior soundstage world. That was the concept.
"But as big as soundstages are, they’re not the world. They’re going to be small. You can only hang the lights so high.
"There’s obviously parts of his movie that are done on a stage, but then there are other parts of it that can’t possibly be on a stage because it’s too big, but it feels like it’s on a stage, you know?"
Weir explained how the film was shot using outdoor locations but with the help of stage lighting to create the illusion of a well-lit, almost fake-looking world.
Greta recently told Rolling Stone that some of the visitors on set had made Barbie actress Margot Robbie feel 'self conscious' during the filming as they interacted more with Ryan Gosling who played Ken than they did with her. She described the scene on Venice Beach, where the pair were rollerblading through the strip.
“How Barbie operates in Barbieland is she’s entirely continuous with her environment,” Gerwig said.
“Even the houses have no walls, because you never need to hide because there’s nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed of. And suddenly finding yourself in the real world and wishing you could hide, that’s the essence of being human.
"But when we were actually shooting on Venice Beach, with Margot and Ryan in neon rollerblading outfits, it was fascinating because it was actually happening in front of us.”
Topics: Barbie, Celebrity, Film and TV, Jim Carrey, Greta Gerwig
Harley Young