Greta Gerwig reveals how she balanced comedy and 'really serious moments' in 'Barbie'

Editor Nick Houy and director Greta Gerwig are opening up on how they blended serious and comedic elements in Barbie without creating jarring tonal shifts.

Houy said this was their biggest challenge given the film's ambitions. “Because this movie has really serious moments and really huge comedy moments…blending those two things in a way that doesn’t feel like whiplash to the audience was the biggest challenge,” he explained. “All the shifts in tone, in the script and in the footage, wrangling that so it all felt like one thing.”

While broadest strokes came quickly, fine-tuning sequence-by-sequence in the final stages was difficult to ensure only perfect material remained. Gerwig noted films feel like a "strange house of cards" given their short runtime, so editing is a "painful" process focusing the last 15% of work.

Critical to nailing tone were dailies compilations Houy created every few weeks, offering "incredibly pleasurable little movies" showcasing footage. Gerwig screened these for cast and crew three weeks in, allowing everyone to understand the film taking shape through a "feedback loop."

Houy was surprised such a visionary director was given free rein on an IP like Barbie, defying expectations. “You, in this film, definitely showed me and everyone what’s possible with something that’s IP that you wouldn’t expect anything from…You can make anything amazing and interesting if you just have the gall to do it and to go for it,” he says. “Whatever it is, you can make it whatever you want it to be, and that’s actually what’s required of you, is to make it what you want it to be and make it interesting to you.”