Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz Reveals ‘Barbie’ Film Made To Create “An Experience With Societal Impact”
Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz confirmed the Barbie film was made to create “an experience with societal impact.”
In a cover story for Variety about the Barbie film, Kreiz first detailed how Mattel did not try and meddle with the creative process of the film and specifically its script.
He shared, “It’s not about oversight. It’s not about control. It’s about trust and how we work with creators.”
Kreiz then said, “The risk was that people outside of Mattel would think that we want to make movies in order to sell more toys. And I was very clear that this is not about selling toys. This is about creating quality content, creating an experience with societal impact that people would want to watch.”
“We’ve been selling toys before we made movies, so we’re not dependent on that,” he added.
Robbie Brenner, the head of Mattel Films, said, “When everybody read the script here for the first time, I’m sure there were things that were like, ‘Wow, that sort of pushes things a little bit.'”
“But we all decided there were going to be moments where it might feel a little scary, but we’re going to be rewarded for that. Being safe in this world doesn’t work,” she continued. “We want it to be bold. Barbie is bold. She’s done incredible things. She’s a trailblazer. And that’s what we did.”
That boldness and “societal impact” appears to be a radical feminist film despite Brenner previously telling Time that the film is “not a feminist movie.”
YouTuber Shadiversity on his alternate channel Knights Watch describes the film as “one of the most blatant, man-hating activism charged, deranged, subversive, intersectional pieces of insane hyper-indulgent third wave feminist propaganda I have ever seen.”
The YouTuber specifically addressed Brenner’s comments claiming the film is not feminist saying, “Now, I know having watched it, whoever said this wasn’t a feminist film is lying through their teeth. This is an insanely– because there are different levels of feminism. No, no, this is third wave intersectional, subversive, man-hating, power hungry, destructive feminism type of that.”
“And it goes off the cliff. It jumps the shark and all,” he added.
RELATED: Greta Gerwig And Margot Robbie Attempt To Explain How The ‘Barbie’ Film Is Feminist
One didn’t need to hear from reviewers that the film was feminist. The film’s director Greta Gerwig as well as the star and producer Margot Robbie confirmed the film was indeed feminist in the lead-up to the film.
Sarah Ferguson of Australia’s ABC News asked the duo, “In the little that was able to be understood about the film in advance, clearly, Mattel still talk about it in slightly different terms to you two. But somehow they don’t like to call it a feminist film, the actors seem very comfortable talking about it as a feminist film, but somehow it doesn’t matter that you talk about it differently
Gerwig answered, “Well, it most certainly is a feminist film.” Robbie then interjected, “To me that’s like one slice of the pie.” Gerwig added, “Super big slice.”
Robbie then confirmed, “It’s a big slice, but I also wouldn’t call it a funny film because that discredits the fact that it’s got a lot of heart, and it’s got a lot of emotion, and it’s got a lot of movie references, you know, all this kind of stuff.”
Robbie went on, “I’m like it is funny that is a huge part of it. It is a comedy, but if you just call it a funny film it almost make it sound like it doesn’t have a lot going on and it does.”
RELATED: Kate McKinnon Reveals ‘Barbie’ Movie Is “About How Gender Roles Deny People Half Their Humanity”
Ferguson eventually pressed them asking, “So what is it for you in the film if you guys are comfortable … if the actors, if all the people on set are comfortable, they get that the word belongs to the film, how so?”
Gerwig answered, “I think it belongs to the film because when we were making it the whole– Barbie is like an icon that as Margot was speaking to, she exists in the both and, not the either or. She’s not either good or bad or, you know. Diving into the complexity of it and not running away from it, but looking at all the thorniness and stepping into it, and also looking all the thorniness and stepping into what is the negotiation of what women need to be and how to give them something other than a tightrope to walk on is how it feels feminist to me.”
Robbie then shared her answer, “I actually, when I got asked the other day like if Barbie is a feminist, well she’s actually the level up from that. If you look at Barbieland at the beginning, the Barbies are on top and the Kens are kind of disregarded. So I was like well that’s not equal. So whatever the opposite of misogynist is actually, Barbie’s like– So towards the end when they balance things out then it might be feminist, but actually it’s beyond feminist because the power dynamic is in the favor of the Barbies to begin with.”
Gerwig adds, “But then not to give too much away, but the human character of I will say Gloria played by the brilliant America Ferrara also articulates some stuff about what this negotiation is.”
“And I think really what it feels is like allowing all the things to exist at once and not shoving things down when they don’t fit with something,” she concluded.
What do you make of the Mattel CEO confirming the film was made to create “an experience with societal impact?”
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