JANUARY 2024 | EDITED BY CHRIS HEWITT
TALK ABOUT PAINTING the town pink. When Barbie landed this summer, cinemas were flooded with fuchsia-clad film fans, strapping in for a riotously rule-breaking comedy that belied its origins as a toy-doll movie. That’s what you get when you hand the Dreamhouse keys over to a filmmaker as unique as Greta Gerwig — someone who both revelled in Barbie’s high-gloss surface, while daring to make a film that probed behind it to tap into deep emotions and unexpected existential questions. With prog-rock dance-battles.
Fresh from conquering the box office with 2023’s biggest film ($1.4 billion and counting), Gerwig sat down with Empire to reflect on her experience at the eye of the storm, her boldest creative decisions, and what Barbie means for the future — both hers, and Hollywood’s.