Does Barbie's Real-Life Inspiration Make A Cameo In The Movie?
Through Greta Gerwig's surf-obsessed, rollerblading "Barbie" extravaganza, there are cameos of both cast members and Barbies that time forgot, elevating this film from being just a simple slice of IP cake. However, one particular appearance that had audiences stumped is relatively early on in Barbie's (Margot Robbie) trip to the real world. After being arrested twice, Barbie sits down on a bench for a breather, only to cross paths with a wonderfully confident woman who brings a smile and a tear to her eye.
Fans have been stumped over who this wonderful woman in the film is, with the theory being that she was the original Barbie (that is to say, Barbara Handler, the daughter of the doll's creator, Ruth Handler). While such an appearance would've been heartwarming, the truth is that the woman sitting across from a cowgirl outfit-wearing Margot Robbie is actually Oscar-winning costume designer Ann Roth. More importantly, it's a scene that, in Gerwig's eyes, the entire film and her involvement were resting on.
Barbie on the bench was Gerwig's cul-de-sac moment the film couldn't go without
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Greta Gerwig discussed Barbie's brief encounter as an all-or-nothing moment and the involvement of Oscar royalty to get it done. Ann Roth is a five-time Academy Award nominee, winning two for "The English Patient" and "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom." Sharing her fondness for the sequence and for the cameo in question, Gerwig referred to Roth as a legend. Gerwig knows the scene didn't add much to the story. Even so, it's something that captures everything the film is about in a microcosm and is just as beautiful and heartwarming as the rest of it.
Good job, then, that Gerwig kept it in, even if following the film's release, she still can't believe she did. "In early cuts, looking at the movie, it was suggested, 'Well, you could cut it. And actually, the story would move on just the same.' And I said, 'If I cut the scene, I don't know what this movie is about,'" Gerwig said. And Gerwig accepts there are certainly wilder sequences that stayed, including a jab at the Snyder Cut of "Justice League." "But to me, the part that I can't believe, that is still in the movie is this little cul-de-sac that doesn't lead anywhere — except for it's the heart of the movie." And it's an absolutely perfect beat.