Barbie director Greta Gerwig has a sleek method relating to dealing with the blockbuster’s greatest critics.

“My hope for the film is that it’s an invite for everyone to be a part of the occasion and let go of the issues that aren’t essentially serving us as both girls or males,” Gerwig, 39, defined in an interview with The New York Instances revealed Tuesday, July 25.

Whereas Barbie was a success on the field workplace after its Friday, July 21, premiere, the film has additionally sparked robust reactions from right-wing critics. Some have referred to as the movie — which stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling — too “woke” and anti-men, whereas others have even burned Barbie dolls in protest.

“Definitely, there’s a number of ardour,” Gerwig advised the outlet. “I hope that in all of that zeal, in the event that they see it or interact with it, it may give them a number of the aid that it gave different individuals.”

Backlash apart, Gerwig has loved seeing followers from all walks of life resonate with the story, which follows Barbie (Robbie, 33) as she travels alongside Ken (Gosling, 42) from Barbie Land to the true world to determine why she is malfunctioning.

“My brother and his sons and his spouse all went in Sacramento and despatched an image, then they despatched a textual content saying their oldest son was going again the following day along with his associates,” Gerwig — who cowrote Barbie with accomplice Noah Baumbach — shared. “These 15 or 16-year-old boys from Sacramento are sending me texts saying, ‘It was nice! We cherished the Porsche joke!’ These are the issues that really feel so superb. I’ve by no means fairly had something like this.”

Barbie opened in direct competitors with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, prompting a web based marketing campaign dubbed “Barbenheimer” for viewers to see each movies back-to-back. Barbie finally got here out of its premiere weekend incomes $162 million, beating Oppenheimer’s $82.4 million.

“I’m so grateful. I’m so amazed. I’m perplexed, actually,” Gerwig advised the newspaper of her movie’s early success. “It’s been superb to stroll round and see individuals in pink. By no means in my wildest goals did I think about one thing like this.”

Barbie-mania has taken over Hollywood, however Gerwig isn’t in a rush to helm a sequel. “At this second, it’s all I’ve received,” she defined. “I really feel like that on the finish of each film, like I’ll by no means have one other thought and all the things I’ve ever needed to do, I did. I wouldn’t need to squash anyone else’s dream however for me, at this second, I’m at completely zero.”

Robbie, nevertheless, beforehand teased that conversations for a follow-up movie are within the works. “It may go one million completely different instructions from this level,” the actress, who additionally served as a producer on the summer season hit, advised Time journal final month. “However I feel you fall right into a little bit of a lure in case you try to arrange a primary film while additionally planning for sequels.”

For now, Gerwig can have her palms full directing Netflix’s upcoming Chronicles of Narnia movies — a venture she’s “correctly scared” to tackle. “I feel after I’m scared, it’s at all times a superb signal,” she advised the “Inside Complete Movie” podcast on Thursday, July 20. “Possibly after I cease being scared, it’ll be like, ‘Possibly I shouldn’t do this one.’ No, I’m petrified of it. It’s extraordinary. And it’s thrilling.”