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Ten years ago, Diablo Cody was attached to the first big attempt to turn Barbie into a movie. Diablo, who won an Oscar for her Juno screenplay, was tasked with making a feminist Barbie movie with Amy Schumer as the lead, and something happens where Barbie is kicked out of BarbieWorld. The project died, partly because of Diablo (she couldn’t figure out how to write it) and partly because of Amy (she sucks). Time passed and Margot Robbie went to Mattel and asked if she could try to put something together. She pitched her production company to produce, and she hired Greta Gerwig to write the screenplay (Greta would rope in her partner Noah Baumbach as co-writer). The rest is history – they made a wonderfully appealing movie, Barbie has made over $1.4 billion and Gerwig and Robbie were just snubbed for acting and directing Oscar nominations. People Mag recently chatted with Diablo about her thoughts on Barbie and the Oscar snubs.
Diablo Cody is sharing her point of view on those Barbie Oscar nominations. The writer, who won the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award back in 2008 for Juno, previously took a stab at writing a Barbie film that never came to fruition. The version that did make a splash in theaters last year, directed and co-written by Greta Gerwig, this week earned eight Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture. Still, Gerwig being left out of the Best Director category and Margot Robbie’s absence in the Best Actress race were considered snubs by fans.
“Here’s what I’m going to say. Obviously, of course I think Greta deserved a nomination and so did Margot,” Cody, 45, tells PEOPLE. “But they made a billion dollars on that movie, okay? I would trade my Oscar for a billion-dollar movie right now, if I could flip a switch! Sorry if that’s disrespectful to the Academy.”
“They made a billion dollars and they got eight nominations across the board,” Cody says. “Margot got nominated as a producer, which I think, knowing what she has been trying to do in her career, I feel like that must’ve been incredibly satisfying for her. And Greta created a phenomenon.”
“I’m telling you, that was a tough project,” says Cody, whose next film is the teen horror-romance Lisa Frankenstein. “Having worked on [a Barbie project] made me respect it all the more, because that is a very challenging property to take and turn into something real. And they did it.”
“So you could call it a snub, but I think that what they achieved is probably bigger than those individual nominations,” she adds.
I think all of this is true and Diablo is in a unique position to speak about how difficult it really was to turn “a doll” into a billion-dollar movie. Diablo tried and she couldn’t work it out, and she’s pointing out how f–king difficult it was for Gerwig and Robbie to do what they did. That’s what bugs me the most about the Oscar snubs – the Oscar voters failed to recognize the difficulty and the huge swing Robbie and Gerwig took here. They didn’t value the creativity, they didn’t value how hard it was to thread that needle and they certainly didn’t value a pop culture phenomenon which appealed to girls and women. As for Diablo saying she’d rather have a billion-dollar movie than an Oscar… maybe that’s true too. But why not both? Why does it have to be either/or?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
174869, Diablo Cody at the Premiere Of Focus Features’ ‘Tully’ at Regal LA Live Stadium 14. Los Angeles, California – Wednesday April 18, 2018. Photograph: © Joe Sutter, PacificCoastNews. Los Angeles Office (PCN): +1 310.822.0419 UK Office (Avalon): +44 (0) 20 7421 6000,Image: 514999088, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – DIRECT SALES ONLY- Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: Joe Sutter, PacificCoastNews / Avalon
Diablo Cody
at the BabyQuest “Let’s Make A Baby” Fundraiser Gala, Private Estate, Toluca Lake, CA 05-19-16,Image: 530847212, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Photoshot – sales@photoshot.com London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: Martin Sloan / Avalon
Margot Robbie photographed attending the European premiere of Barbie at Cineworld Leicester Square in London, UK on 12 July 2023.,Image: 788738538, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Julie Edwards / Avalon
Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie at the Barbie European Premiere at Cineworld in Leicester Square, London, United Kingdom on 12 July 2023.,Image: 788742881, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Cat Morley / Avalon
Greta Gerwig at the Barbie European Premiere at Cineworld in Leicester Square, London, United Kingdom on 12 July 2023.,Image: 788749881, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Cat Morley / Avalon
