Meryl Streep names the summer blockbuster that ‘saved all of our jobs’

Oscar-winning actor praised the film for ‘delivering joy to countless generations and genders’

Meryl Streep has praised Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster Barbie as the film that “saved all of our jobs” last summer.

The three-time Oscar-winning actor, 74, paid the compliment after sibling music duo Billie Eilish and Finneas finished their performance of their song “What Was I Made For?” at the 2024 Palm Springs International Film Awards on Thursday (4 January).

The two singer-songwriters were honoured with the festival’s Chairman’s Award for their work on the Barbie soundtrack.

“I just want to say to Billie and Finneas that you have delivered the Barbie love bomb,” Streep said as she took the stage, according to Variety.

“You’ve saved the movies last summer and all of our jobs,” the Devil Wears Prada actor said of 2023’s highest-grossing movie.

“You’ve delivered joy to countless generations and genders of people, and you should surf that wave, kids, until you’re old and deserve to be jaded like me.”

Barbie, starring Margot Robbie as the eponymous Mattel doll, raked in a jaw-dropping $1.4bn at the global box office – a figure that made Gerwig the first female director to sail past $1bn.

Greta Gerwig delivers speech at the 2024 Palm Springs International Film Festival (Invision)

In one of the film’s most talked-about moments, Ferrera, who plays Mattel employee Gloria, delivers an emotional monologue to Robbie’s “Stereotypical Barbie” and her fellow Barbies about the contradictory demands made of women under the patriarchy, and how it is “literally impossible to be a woman”.

While the scene has largely been celebrated by viewers, including young girls who’ve performed it at auditions, others have suggested that it presented a basic and un-nuanced version of feminism.

Ferrera addressed the criticism in a recent interview with The New York Times, saying: “We can know things and still need to hear them out loud.

“To say that something that is maybe foundational, or, in some people’s view, basic feminism isn’t needed is an oversimplification,” the Ugly Betty actor said. “Assuming that everybody is on the same level of knowing and understanding the experience of womanhood is an oversimplification.”

The critically acclaimed movie, which The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey lauded as a “nearly miraculous achievement” in her five-star review, currently leads the 2024 Golden Globes nominations.

It dominates the competition with nine nods at the awards show broadcasting live on Sunday (7 January), followed closely by Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer with eight noms.

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