Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" Is All Anyone Can Talk About, So Here Are 18 Facts About Her

1 year ago 5

It's a Barbie world, and we're all just living in it — the movie, directed and cowritten by Greta Gerwig, is crushing records left and right and has brought in over $781 million worldwide at the box office. To celebrate the film, here are 18 facts you might not have known about Greta, the powerhouse woman behind it all:

1. Like the titular Lady Bird in her semi-autobiographical directorial debut Lady Bird, Greta grew up in Sacramento, and her mother was a nurse. Her parents actually appeared in her earlier work, Frances Ha, as Frances's parents.

2. As a child, Greta was a ballerina and was incredibly passionate about dance (much like Frances in Frances Ha). However, she painfully realized that she wasn't "built" physically to be a ballerina, and ended up taking up fencing instead — she ultimately proved very talented at the sport and ranked 3rd in California, and 8th nationally.

3. Greta attended Barnard College in NYC, where she intended to major in musical theater but ended up majoring in english and philosophy — she graduated in 2006.

4. At Barnard, Greta met and lived with Kate McKinnon who attended Columbia, and they were in an improv group at age 19 where they wrote "wonderfully strange musicals" together. Of course, Kate eventually appeared in Barbie as Weird Barbie.

5. Greta first realized she was a writer after she wrote a story based on a real-life embarrassing moment where she peed her pants in school while taking a math test.

6. While Greta is now known as a writer and director, she started her career as an actor after she was rejected from MFA programs in playwriting — she appeared in films like LOL, No Strings Attached, and Greenberg.

7. Greta went on to cowrite Frances Ha and Mistress America with Noah, and she starred in both films while Noah directed.

8. Greta ultimately decided to take the plunge as a director after she wrote the script for Lady Bird and simply "knew" she had to direct it herself.

9. After How I Met Your Mother ended in 2014, Greta was attached to star in the CBS spinoff How I Met Your Dad. The pilot was shot, but ultimately, the project wasn't picked up.

10. When Greta was sourcing the iconic music for Lady Bird, she wrote personal letters to Justin Timberlake, Alanis Morissette, and Dave Matthews to get permission to use their songs in pivotal moments of the movie.

11. Greta was so passionate about Little Women, she knew she needed to get involved even before Lady Bird ever came out — like so many other women, Jo March and the book were always a major inspiration for her.

12. Greta hoped and intended that Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet — who had both appeared in Lady Bird and Little Women — would make cameos in Barbie, but the scheduling didn't work out.

13. Even though Barbie is a massive property and on a mainstream level like none of her other movies before, Greta said that working on it still felt very personal to her.

14. A fact that's very appropriate for her eventual work on Barbie, Greta revealed that she actually played with dolls (including some Barbies) until she was 14, when her peers were already partying.

15. When writing Barbie, Greta wrote the role of Ken with Ryan Gosling in mind — so, in her mind, it really couldn't have been anyone else in that role.

16. One thing that's important to Greta is that making a movie always feels like a joy — and she said that's exactly what the Barbie set was like.

17. As a trailblazing female director, Greta acknowledges how special it is that she can inspire a whole new generation of female filmmakers.

18. And finally, despite being a directing powerhouse, Greta is "terrified" for her next project — directing the new upcoming adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia.

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.

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