SPOILERS are ahead for Barbie.
There’s so many reasons why I love Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. Not only was it a fun moviegoing experience I had the chance to enjoy while wearing hot pink with a lot more friends than are usually game to see a single movie at the same time, I also thought it was a hilarious comedy laced with quite a bit of impactful commentary about being human. And, I truly wasn’t expecting to find so much meaning in a movie about the world’s most famous plastic doll, but here we are. What I want to talk about right now is one of my favorite scenes in the movie, because not only has it really stayed with me, it apparently was almost a deleted scene.
I can’t believe one standout scene in Barbie was almost left out of the film, had it not been for writer/director Greta Gerwig insisting that it stay. I want to talk about the story behind it and why such a small moment in 2023’s biggest blockbuster made all the difference to me as a fan of the film.
Barbie Is Full of Great Scenes But The Bench Scene Is A True Gem
The scene in question is when Margot Robbie’s Stereotypical Barbie has just had a wild first hour in The Real World, between getting groped at Venice Beach, punching the man who did it, and then getting briefly arrested with Ken. As she and Ken decide their next move, Barbie gets to sit still and experience The Real World for the first time, as Ken runs off to learn about the patriarchy. Without any calamities occurring around her, she has a sweet moment of gratefulness where she takes the whole place in, seeing kids playing at a park, people laughing and so forth. The ambience of conversation goes on around her, she notices a massive tree in front of her, and the elderly woman the next bench over.
Amidst Barbie having a cry and focusing on the humans she is connected with, she looks to her right to see the first woman she’s ever really looked at who is not a flawless Barbie. She tells her she’s beautiful and the woman sweetly responds “I know it” before the pair laugh together in a very wholesome manner. It’s a simple scene, but one of appreciation for the natural cycle of life we all share, but can take for granted. Barbieland may be gorgeous, but I love that Barbie looked around and noticed the inherent beauty in humans, no matter their age, and it ultimately made her want to join us in the Barbie ending.
Apparently, There Was Talk About Removing The Bench Scene
Given my thoughts on the scene, I was naturally surprised to hear that this scene in particular was actually nearly cut from the film. If it wasn’t for Greta Gerwig putting her foot down in post production and Warner Bros ultimately allowing it to stay put, we may have never seen what I felt like was such a key scene to the movie’s messages. While speaking to Rolling Stone, Gerwig shared this about the moment in Barbie:
There’s a lovely scene where Barbie sees an older woman — a sight she’d never encountered in Barbieland — and tells her she’s beautiful. I love that scene so much. And the older woman on the bench is the costume designer Ann Roth. She’s a legend. It’s a cul-de-sac of a moment, in a way — it doesn’t lead anywhere. And 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.
As Gerwig spoke to, the scene doesn’t necessarily move the story of Barbie along on the surface. It’s a kind of random moment, but at the same time it’s subtly so central to what Barbie is. As the writer/director also shared when speaking to the movie’s themes, she said this:
I started from this idea of Barbieland, this place with no death, no aging, no decay, no pain, no shame. We know the story. We’ve heard this story. This is an old story. It’s in a lot of religious literature. What happens to that person? They have to leave. And they have to confront all the things that were shielded from them in this place.
So when Stereotypical Barbie meets the older woman in this moment, she’s literally confronting aging. And in another movie, Barbie could have looked at wrinkles in the face for the first time and become irked. But I love that both Barbie and the woman embrace the fact of life in that moment. It’s so important to what the movie symbolizes for me.
But Greta Gerwig Fought To Keep The Scene In Barbie
Ultimately, the scene remains in Barbie. As Gerwig also shared about the scene:
To me, this is the heart of the movie. The way Margot plays that moment is so gentle and so unforced. There’s the more outrageous elements in the movie that people say, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe Mattel let you do this,’ or, ‘I can’t believe Warner Bros. let you do this.’ 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.
It absolutely is the heart of the movie. Without this scene it’s less plausible to me why Barbie would want to become human. Let me dive deeper into why…
I Can't Imagine The Bench Scene Not Being In Barbie For A Few Reasons
While Gerwig calls the short connection between Barbie and the stranger a “cul-de-sac of a moment” I think it’s the most quietly powerful scene that strings the whole meaning of Barbie together for me. Because, Barbie is about a lot of things. It confronts the inherent problems of the Barbie doll and the often uneven relationships between men and women and the unfair pressures women have in our society. There’s truly a lot going on. But, the woman on the bench grounds the whole thing for me.
Because despite the mess of society that Barbie experiences in the matter of a day, what really matters is being a living, breathing, aging, feeling woman. More than anything else, Barbie takes Margot Robbie’s character through the realization of what being a human really means. It means having to deal with all these crazy social norms and pressures and yes, the patriarchy, but ultimately she’d rather trade her plastic persona, “perfect” world and clothes for it because it’s what is real. When Barbie trades her life in Barbieland and visits her gynecologist, she is embracing the mess that is life and that is being a woman. And looking an elderly woman in the face and recognizing the beauty of aging and changing was a moment that directly led to that.
The scene is empowering because Barbie embraces being a woman, wrinkles and all, in that moment and so does the woman herself. How often have you seen a scene with an elderly woman being the butt of a joke or being cast out as ugly or less than? I absolutely will never get over the fact that Barbie chose that moment to show support and respect for the aging process, and womanhood in all its forms.
Thank you Greta Gerwig for keeping the scene!
Barbie is now available to watch at home. It's a great time to rewatch it and notice these sublime details.
