Greta Gerwig Explains What Barbie’s Bench Scene Really Means (& Casting An Oscar Winner As The Old Woman)

Greta Gerwig explains what the Barbie movie’s bench scene really means and the story behind the casting. Co-written and directed by Gerwig, the film follows Margot Robbie’s Stereotypical Barbie who, suddenly stricken with worries about death, leaves the utopian Barbieland in search of self-discovery in the real world. In Venice Beach, Barbie finds herself on a bench next to an elderly woman, and the two have a brief back-and-forth which isn’t essential to the plot but helps conveys the movie’s overall themes.