Greta Gerwig Opened Up About Why She Felt It Was Important To End "Barbie" With That Final Line From Margot Robbie

🩷 There are obviously MASSIVE spoilers ahead for Barbie! 🩷

Greta Gerwig's Barbie has FINALLY hit theaters and it's literally THE movie of 2023. Grossing an impressive $162 million domestically in its opening weekend, Barbie is officially the biggest debut ever for a film directed by a woman.

Jaap Buitendijk

The whole movie is so fun, but it's also such a Greta film at heart, especially towards the end as Barbie, Gloria (Ferrera), Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), and the rest of the Barbies come together to save Barbie Land from being taken over by the Kens.

After Barbie Land is saved, Margot's Barbie must decide where her place in everything is, especially after experiencing the Real World, meeting Gloria, realizing how complex women are, and much more.

This leads to the end of the film where, after talking to Ruth (Rhea Perlman), Barbie decides to join the Real World. Coupled with another moving song by Billie Eilish titled "What Was I Made For?," I was very much sobbing through the last 15 minutes of Barbie.

While a lot of emotional moments happen at the very end of Barbie, the movie actually goes out on one of the funniest final lines.

The last scene features Gloria, Sasha, and Gloria's husband dropping Barbie off and wishing her luck. Then, Barbie goes inside a seemingly typical office building, checks in at a front desk, and says, "I'm here to see my gynecologist." Cut to the closing credits.

It's such a memorable closing line and now Greta is explaining why she felt Margot's last line was so essential to the movie.

"With this film, it was important for me that everything operated on at least two levels. I knew I wanted to end on a mic drop kind of joke, but I also find it very emotional," Greta told USA Today in a recent interview.

She continued, saying, "When I was a teenage girl, I remember growing up and being embarrassed about my body, and just feeling ashamed in a way that I couldn't even describe. It felt like everything had to be hidden."

"And then to see Margot as Barbie, with this big old smile on her face, saying what she says at the end with such happiness and joy," Greta added.

Like everything with Barbie, Greta wanted to explore womanhood and kind of reclaim the original purpose of the Barbie doll, which was to be an empowering toy for women, and this final line tapped into that.

She explained, "I was like, if I can give girls that feeling of, 'Barbie does it, too' – that's both funny and emotional. There are so many things like that throughout the movie. It was always about looking for the levity and the heart."

Throughout the process of making Barbie, Greta and Margot worked extensively to bring their vision to life, and that included pushing the envelope with what would be included in a movie about the iconic doll.

Notably, although they worked closely with Mattel, they did receive some pushback, with Margot telling Fandango, "Greta kinda pushes [the movie] in directions that I didn't think [Mattel] would let us go in. I think a big part of that was kind of acknowledging the things that people find problematic about Barbie, as well as the things that people love about Barbie."

Margot recalled one instance where Mattel president and COO, Richard Dickson, flew to the Barbie set in London to argue about a scene he felt was off-brand for the company. However, once Margot and Greta performed the scene for him, he changed his mind.

In the end, Barbie is quintessentially a Greta Gerwig film, and I love that she and Margot were able to fight for keeping in moments like the last line in the finished product. It's what makes Barbie so good.

And, come hang out with everyone else who is screaming, crying, and throwing up about Barbie in BuzzFeed’s iOS app. Heck, even Allan is there.