In the trailer for Greta Gerwig‘s highly anticipated “Barbie” film adaptation, one of the biggest plot points is the central Barbie doll (played by Margot Robbie) suddenly losing her trademark arched feet, to the horror of the other Barbies in Barbie Land. But that moment almost became horrifying for completely different reasons, as the executives in charge of the film nearly considered using CGI on the actors’ feet — before Gerwig quickly squashed the idea.
Gerwig spoke about making the film during an interview on the Australian talk show “The Project” (via Variety). During the interview, she spoke about how she made the arched foot scene that opens the trailer happen, revealing that she shut down discussions of using CGI on Robbie or the rest of the actors playing Barbie early on.
“There was a big discussion in the beginning,” Gerwig said the show. “Everyone said, ‘Are you going to CGI all the feet?’ And I thought, ‘Oh god, no! That’s terrifying! That’s a nightmare.’ Also Margot has the nicest feet. She has these beautiful dancer feet. She should just hang on to that bar and do it just like this.”
In the end, Robbie ended up arching her feet by herself; according to a Time Magazine story, the shot took eight tries, and Robbie ended up holding a bar off camera in order to stay stable while walking.
As for why Gerwig wanted the arched feet in the movie, the director said it was part of her attempt to recapture the experience of playing with Barbie dolls when she was a kid.
“Even though it’s this huge movie, it feels very personal to me,” Gerwig said. “It was made by so many people who cared about it. Even the Barbie logo that we used is the logo that I had as a child of the ’80s. I would stand in the toy store…we had the wide boxes because their hair was really big. I wanted the [logo] that I liked.”
“Barbie” releases July 21. Gerwig directs from a script she co-wrote with her partner Noah Baumbach, and Robbie stars alongside Ryan Gosling as Ken. Additional cast members in the ensemble include Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Hari Nef, Dua Lipa, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, John Cena, Michael Cera, Emerald Fennell, America Ferrera, Will Ferrell, Rhea Perlman, and Helen Mirren as the narrator. For more details regarding the upcoming comedy, check here.
