The editing process and showing a film to a test audience can lead to big changes, like taking out scenes, despite how the filmmakers feel. Greta Gerwig and editor Nick Houy, who worked with her on Lady Bird and Little Women, had to make big decisions for their latest film. When in post-production on Barbie, the two decided to cut a “fart opera” scene as not everyone found it funny. The director found it “really funny,” but had to do what was best for her film, despite her feelings on the matter.
Behind the Cut ‘Fart Opera’ Scene in Barbie that Greta Gerwig Found ‘Really Funny’
In an interview with IndieWire, Gerwig and Houy talked about the Barbie scene they had to cut out of the final version of the film. It had to do with the two wanting a “proper fart joke” in the film. In being more comedic than Gerwig’s previous films, they wanted a test audience to react to the movie to see what worked and what didn’t. It turns out that the “proper fart joke” did not land as they had hoped.
“We always tried to get in a proper fart joke and we’ve never done it,” Gerwig said. “We had like a fart opera in the middle [of Barbie]. I thought it was really funny. And that was not the consensus.”
Making a film all comes down to the edit. That is how the pacing is formed, which can make or break it for an audience. For Houy, he found that the cut Barbie scene was “in the wrong place, too.” If they had managed a proper placement, it might have worked, but regardless of their attempt, the scene was taken out of the film.
The decisions made in the editing room seem to have worked out for the best since Barbie is now a huge success. It has been raking in cash due to its positive reviews and word of mouth. The film is currently pushing toward $500 million worldwide. The success had been in the making for a while, helped by the internet phenomenon Barbenheimer, which started with the Margot Robbie-led film landing on the same date as Christopher Nolan’s latest, Oppenheimer.
