While Greta Gerwig’s Academy Award-nominated “Barbie” was the highest-grossing film of 2023, as we’ve seen over the course of the last year, it angered and irritated many. From Oliver Stone to Kelly Reichardt to Ruben Östlund, seemingly everyone had a take on “Barbie” they were willing to share. The latest person to weigh in on the film, or at least give their candid thoughts, was TV super producer/writer Shonda Rhimes, known for “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal,” “Bridgerton,” and her Shondaland TV producing empire.
When Variety recently asked about her opinion of the film, Rhimes initially said, “No comment,” before quickly shifting to a much longer answer. “If you’re expecting a ‘Barbie’ movie, then I thought it was great. But I think a lot of people were expecting so much more and then tried to make it so much more,” she explained.”
Rhimes then clarified she found the film entertaining but thought too much emphasis was placed on making it important. “There was nothing wrong with the movie; I thought it was totally delightful. But the weight people put on a movie about Barbie was very interesting to me…I think that people wanted it to be sort of this feminist manifesto that it doesn’t need to be.”
Rhimes is a TV veteran and five-time Emmy-nominated writer/producer. In 2017, she was named an Emmy Hall of Fame honoree. She even produced the documentary “Black Barbie” and even a Mattel doll in her honor, but it is safe to say that she wasn’t quite feeling the Kenergy the same most audiences seem to.
“I’ve heard the song ‘I’m Just Ken’ in my house every single day because one of my kids sings it all the time,” Rhimes continued. “I think there’s something really powerful about it. I played with those dolls when I was a kid. We also had just a very interesting opportunity to add to that documentary and to provide a lot more content and context. We have added interviews [to the documentary ‘Black Barbie’]; we’ve been inside Mattel.”
Rhimes comments are curious, given the creative thoughtfulness Gerwig and co-writer Noah Baumbach put into the film, extrapolating so much from so little. “Barbie” had no narrative, story, or even much of a character to work from, and yet, Gerwig and Baumbach were able to create a rich story by inferring much from the broader themes of Barbie and what the toy meant culturally, both good and bad.
.Either way, the film pulled in a whopping $1.446 billion at the box office against a $128-145 million budget. Despite its immense success critically and commercially, there are currently no plans for a sequel or spin-off, though Gerwig has recently said she’s open to the idea.