Barbie: Greta Gerwig & Kate McKinnon's 'Wonderfully Strange' Past Explained

Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" movie is currently taking the world by storm. With its stellar reviews from both critics and fans alike and record-breaking $155 million opening weekend, the Margot Robbie-starring film is set to be one of the biggest movies of the year and serves as a pretty firm indicator that theaters have recovered from the ticket sales drought brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

With its star-studded cast, "Barbie" easily rivals the wide array of actors in its competing release, "Oppenheimer." Still, there's one member of Barbie's world that really stands out. Kate McKinnon plays Weird Barbie in the film, and with her bizarre ideas and off-kilter style, she's the only person who can help Robbie's Stereotypical Barbie sort out her newfound anxiety and depression.

As it turns out, it looks like there's a good reason why Gerwig selected McKinnon to play that particular part, as the duo apparently has a history of being weird together. "We were in an improv group together. She was much better, better at it than I was," Gerwig told People. "We made really wonderfully strange musicals together when we were in college."

Though both Greta Gerwig and Kate McKinnon would go on to have impressive careers in their own rights, Gerwig recalled how talented the future "Saturday Night Live" star McKinnon was during their time at Columbia University, where they both were enrolled at Barnard College. "But she was always the most talented person I knew, and that still holds true," Gerwig recalled in an interview with People.

The "Little Women" and "Lady Bird" director also noted how much things have changed for them in the 20 years since. "We were just 19 making a weird musical together and thinking like, 'I hope someone will wanna work with us one day.' Then cut to 39 and to just be calling her and saying, 'Do you wanna be in this big thing?'"

Though it sounds like both were happy and excited about the prospect of working together again after all of the years that had passed, Gerwig admitted that it did feel a bit strange to reconnect with her friend on such a massive project together. "We just both started laughing because there was something about it where in some ways, hopefully, we've grown and changed and developed as artists, and in other ways, we're doing exactly what we were doing at 19."