Greta Gerwig Said ‘Oh, God No!’ When Asked If ‘Barbie’ Should Use CGI for Actors’ Arched Feet: ‘That’s Terrifying. That’s a Nightmare’

The much-maligned Cats movie musical caused the internet to lose its mind after a visual effects editor on the film confirmed that CGI was used to add buttholes to all of the feline characters. The butthole cut, as it became known on social media, was ultimately scrapped by the studio. Its now been revealed that the upcoming Barbie movie flirted with its own potential CGI disaster, as writer-director Greta Gerwig shut down early discussions that wouldve had her actors sporting CGI feet since Barbie is known for her arched heels.

There was a big discussion in the beginning, Gerwig said on Australias The Project. Everyone said, Are you going to CGI all the feet? And I thought, Oh god, no! Thats terrifying! Thats a nightmare. Also Margot has the nicest feet. She has these beautiful dancer feet. She should just hang on to that bar and do it just like this.

The official trailer for Barbie begins with a shot of Robbiestepping out of her high-heel slippers to reveal her bare feet are still arched and ready to be slipped into whatever next shoe accessory awaits. Robbie refused to use a foot double for the moment and held on to a bar off camera to stabilize her balance.

As revealed ina recent Time magazine cover storyon the making of Barbie: The shot took eight takes. [Margot Robbie] had to hold onto a bar to keep her feet flexed. And, yes, those are her feet. I really dont like it when someone else does my hands or feet in an insert shot, she says.

Ensuring the Barbie characters had arched feet all went into Gerwigs plan to capture her own experience with the doll growing up.

Even though its this huge movie, it feels very personal to me, Gerwig said on The Project. It was made by so many people who cared about it. Even the Barbie logo that we used is the logo that I had as a child of the 80s. I would stand in the toy storewe had the wide boxes because their hair was really big. I wanted the [logo] that I liked.

Barbie opens in theaters nationwide July 21 from Warner Bros.