Greta Gerwig Addresses Barbie Backlash and Reveals How She Knew Ryan Gosling was Her Perfect Ken

Barbie has proven to be a box office hit. The Mattel-themed movie became the biggest debut ever for a film directed by a woman after earning a reported $162 million during its opening weekend, per Variety. But that doesn’t mean filmmaker Greta Gerwig has had it easy since the blockbuster’s July 21 release. 

“I wanted to make something anarchic and wild and funny and cathartic, and the idea that it’s actually being received that way, it’s sort of extraordinary,” Gerwig, 39, said while discussing the inspiration for the film in an interview published by the New York Times on Tuesday. The screenwriter also revealed how Mattel executives reacted to some scenes, like those involving Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), a teenage character from the real world who calls Barbie dolls sexist and fascist.

“It wasn’t like I ever got the full seal of approval from [Mattel], like, ‘We love it!’ I got a tentative, ‘Well, okay. I see that you are going to do this, so go ahead and we’ll see how it goes.’ But that’s all you need, and I had faith once it was in there and they saw it, that they would embrace it, not fight it. Maybe at the end of the day, my will to have it in was stronger than any other will to take it out,” Gerwig said. 

Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.PEOPLE‘s free daily newsletter

When asked by the publication how she’s dealing with right-wing conservatives who expressed their disapproval for the film by declaring it “woke” and threatening to burn their Barbies, Gerwig remained positive. “Certainly, there’s a lot of passion,” she said. “My hope for the movie is that it’s an invitation for everybody to be part of the party and let go of the things that aren’t necessarily serving us as either women or men. I hope that in all of that passion, if they see it or engage with it, it can give them some of the relief that it gave other people.”

The megahit movie, which tackles the iconic doll leaving Barbie Land and exploring the real world (and its issues), has been years in the making. In a recent appearance on the SmartLess podcast, Gerwig talked about the exact moment she knew Ryan Gosling was meant to be her Ken. The vision came after she saw The Notebook star on a 2017 episode of Saturday Night Live. In the SNL skit, Gosling played a preppy “Guy Who Just Joined Soho House” alongside Alex Moffat as “Guy Who Just Bought a Boat” during the sketch show’s “Weekend Update” segment with Colin Jost.

“You know those actors you can… just sort of feel that they know what’s funny, and I always felt that about him,” Gerwig said during her chat with SmartLess. “And then I’m a big fan of all of his SNLs, I always thought he was great on SNL… He did ‘Guy That Just Got a Boat’ on ‘Weekend Update,’ and it’s so good.” The spoof led her to envision him as “Beach Ken.” 

“We wrote his name into the script and everything… and [Gosling’s name] was everywhere. And then when we handed them the script, the studio was like, ‘Oh, it’s so wonderful that you know Ryan.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know Ryan. I’ve never met Ryan, I have no idea,’” Gerwig recalled.

During an April appearance at CinemaCon 2023 in Las Vegas with the cast, Gerwig confessed that once the time finally came to begin filming, she “cried when I stepped on the set for the first time.” She added, “It was so touching.”

Barbie also stars Margot Robbie, America Ferrera, Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon, Michael Cera, Simu Liu and Will Ferrell. 

Barbie is in theaters now.