Greta Gerwig finally commented on the “Barbie” Oscar snubs heard around the world, telling Time magazine that it’s wonderful she’s still nominated for an Academy Award despite missing out on a best director nomination. Gerwig is nominated for adapted screenplay thanks to “Barbie.” Controversy has surrounded the 2024 Oscar noms ever since Gerwig was snubbed for best director and Margot Robbie was snubbed for best actress. Robbie is also still Oscar nominated this year for best picture as one of the “Barbie” producers.
“Of course I wanted it for Margot,” Gerwig told Time. “But I’m just happy we all get to be there together. A friend’s mom said to me, ‘I can’t believe you didn’t get nominated.’ I said, ‘But I did. I got an Oscar nomination.’ She was like, ‘Oh, that’s wonderful for you!’ I was like, ‘I know!’”
While Gerwig’s Oscar-nominated “Barbie” actors Ryan Gosling and America Ferrera have both expressed disappointment with the Academy for snubbing Gerwig and Robbie, the two powerhouse women aren’t too phased.
“There’s no way to feel sad when you know you’re this blessed,”Robbiesaid about the snubs during a SAG-AFTRA conversation. “Obviously, I think Greta should be nominated as a director. What she did is a once-in-a-career, once-in-a-lifetime thing. What she pulled off, it really is. But it’s been an incredible year for all the films.”
Regardless, Robbie said she is “beyond ecstatic” with the film’s eight Oscar nominations. She added: “We set out to do something that would shift culture, affect culture, just make some sort of impact. And it’s already done thatand some, way more than we ever dreamed it would. And that is truly the biggest reward that could come out of all of this.”
once Gerwig’s Oscar season for “Barbie” wraps up, she’ll be spending the majority of her time getting her two “Chronicles of Narnia” movies for Netflix up and running. The filmmaker told Total Film last year she was “properly scared” of adapting C.S. Lewis’ sacred novels, but noted at the time: “I think when I’m scared, it’s always a good sign. Maybe when I stop being scared, it’ll be like, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t do that one.’ No, I’m terrified of it. It’s extraordinary. And it’s exciting.”
In her new Time magazine interview, Gerwig revealed that she completed a draft of a “Narnia” movie before cameras even started rolling on “Barbie.”
“Knowing that I’d laid the groundwork for‘Narnia’and wanted to return to it — that’s probably something I set up for myself psychologically,” Gerwig said. “Because I know the right thing, for me anyway, is to keep making movies. Whatever happens, good or bad, you’ve got to keep going. It’s never not astonishing to me that somebody gives you money to make a movie.”
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos told the publication that Gerwig’s “Narnia” films “won’t be counter to how the audience may have imagined those worlds, but it will be bigger and bolder than they thought.” Gerwig noted she wanted to make “Narnia” films because she was drawn to the “euphorically dreamlike” quality of Lewis’ writing.
“It’s connected to the folklore and fairy stories of England, but it’s a combination of different traditions,” she said. “As a child, you accept the whole thing — that you’re in thisland of Narnia, there’s fauns, and then Father Christmas shows up. It doesn’t even occur to you that it’s not schematic. I’m interested in embracing the paradox of the worlds that Lewis created, because that’s what’s so compelling about them.”
