LOS ANGELES − The "Barbie" movie has inspired awe across the internet for its ambitious publicity campaign, which has included numerous pop-up installations, a Boston boat cruise and even a massive Malibu Dreamhouse available to book on Airbnb.
So, naturally, the film couldn't kick off its world premiere with any normal red carpet.
On Sunday, the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall in downtown Los Angeles transformed into a corner of Barbie Land, complete with a wave sculpture, a lighthouse, a lifeguard tower, a mini-pink Corvette and a two-story dream house with a slide for stars to interact and pose with while strutting down the Barbie-pink carpet.
"This is crazy − it feels like I'm back on set," Scott Evans, who plays a Ken doll along with co-stars Ryan Gosling and Simu Liu, quips on the carpet.
For many of the film's stars, Barbie was a ubiquitous part of childhood. Michael Cera, who plays a discontinued Allan doll in the film, describes the iconic Mattel toy as "part of the language of childhood and imagination and developing ideas and experimenting with your imagination."
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As soon as he found out about the movie, he says he knew it was going to be "an enormous cultural moment."
"I've never personally been involved in a project that had so much attention before we even finished making it or started making it," he says of the hype around the film, which has inspired memes and strong social media reaction since photos of Margot Robbie as Barbie and Gosling as Ken hit the internet last year. "I feel like it had fans before we even made it, and I understand why."
America Ferrera, who plays a human in the film, says she had a more distant relationship with Barbie growing up, noting she didn't see herself represented in the toy. The film, she says, seeks to show how all women can relate to the doll, no matter who they are.
"The meaning of Barbie has shifted and changed, and it's not about one standard of beauty, one standard of womanhood," she says. "The message of this movie is that you're enough just as you are and what makes you unique is what you should celebrate."
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For many people who grew up with Barbie, it was a childhood rite of passage to wreck the doll, cutting her hair, scribbling over her with crayons, or involving poor Barbie in otherwise heinous acts.
Greta Gerwig, who directed the film and co-wrote it with her partner Noah Baumbach, says most of the violence she inflicted on her Barbie dolls as a kid was "all hair-related."
"First, you start by taking the braid out, then you brush it out, then you see if you can curl it with a curling iron − you can't, it melts − and then you cut it all off," she says, adding that doing so "ruined the curling iron."
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Alexandra Shipp, who plays a Barbie in the film, flashes a sly smile after admitting she once burned her Barbie's hair "just to see what it would do" (Spoiler alert: It burned), and Hari Nef, another Barbie in the film,says she put her dolls through more sophisticated forms of torture.
"I didn't really mutilate them physically, but I engaged them interpersonally in some really messed up psychodramas, like adultery and theft and scamming and crime," she says. "My Barbies were not well-behaved, but they looked amazing."
'Barbie' scores stellar first reactions: 'Give Ryan Gosling an Oscar nomination'
A screening of the film followed the carpet, and the first reactions poured in soon after on social media.
Variety social media editor Katcy Stephan tweeted that the movie "is perfection."
"Greta Gerwig delivers a nuanced commentary on what it means to be a woman in a whimsical, wonderful and laugh-out-loud funny romp," Stephan wrote. "The entire cast shines, especially Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in roles they were clearly born to play."
Twitter user @EzeBaum called it "a triumph."
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"A pitch-perfect script backed by great performances – particularly from Ryan Gosling – turns what could be a simple studio comedy into a sharp commentary on our society that makes its nuance palatable for those that may not take it at face value," the user wrote.
Gosling's turn as Ken earned plenty of praise, with some Twitter users already generating Oscar buzz.
"I can't officially quit Twitter before telling you all that #Barbieis currently my favorite film of the year," @JamieCinematics tweeted. "Greta Gerwig somehow exceeded my expectations. She tackles the positives and negatives of Barbie so beautifully. Give Ryan Gosling an Oscar nomination, I'm dead serious!"
"#Barbie is Ryan Gosling’s best role to date—Greta Gerwig takes everything that has made him great in his previous films and combines them into a Super-Gosling," @EHeckler wrote. "The Oscar buzz is real, and if it happens it would be one of the most fun and inspired nominations in recent memory."
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