Margot Robbie never thought she'd have 'empathy for a doll.' Then she made 'Barbie.'

For Greta Gerwig, making “Barbie” was a divine calling.

The Oscar-nominated director brings tenderness and care to Mattel’s candy-coated summer comedy (in theaters Friday), elevating it far beyond what audiences might expect from a film about a plastic doll. Take, for instance, a scene where Barbie (Margot Robbie) meets Ruth Handler (Rhea Perlman), the toy’s inventor.

“There’s this shot where Ruth hands Barbie a cup of tea, and the way we lined it up is the exact way that God is touching Adam on the Sistine Chapel," Gerwig says. Rodrigo Prieto, the movie’s cinematographer, “was like: ‘Throw it in! Barbie deserves it. Michelangelo, let’s go!’ ”

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Greta Gerwig's 'Barbie' movie looks at a 'complicated icon from all angles'

The film begins with Barbie living in perpetual bliss in Barbie Land, where she and her fellow Barbies have all the power and throw dance parties and sleepovers every night. But one day, Barbie wakes up feeling off: She has cellulite, flat feet and nagging thoughts of death. So she journeys to Los Angeles to find the girl who owns her – only to learn that Barbie dolls have been shunned by a new generation of kids.

Robbie, 33, produced the long-gestating project and sought out Gerwig and her partner, Noah Baumbach, to write the script. As a fan of Gerwig’s movies “Lady Bird” (2017) and “Little Women” (2019), she knew the filmmaker could bring something “dimensional and unexpected” to the story.

“ ‘Lady Bird’ feels like someone telling you, ‘We’re going to get through this experience together,’ ” says Robbie, speaking to USA TODAY prior to the Screen Actors Guild strike. “Same with ‘Little Women’ – it feels like a hug. It seems fitting and almost inevitable that the Barbie movie would feel that way. We can look at something that’s complicated and spiky, and not be mean-spirited and cynical. This movie is brimming with optimism, and maybe people weren’t expecting that from a Barbie movie.”

The film doesn’t shy away from the ridicule Barbie has received ever since she was introduced in 1959. Some critics say that the doll promotes consumerism and unrealistic body ideals and that she lives a vapid existence with her hunky arm candy, Ken (Ryan Gosling). But the movie astutely suggests that perhaps we’ve been holding Barbie to the same double standards that women across the globe have faced for centuries.

“One thing we really wanted to do was look at this complicated icon from all angles, but always approach everything with a big heart,” Gerwig says. “For every character, we wanted to give them a hug.”

Ryan Gosling's daughters helped him find the 'emotional core' of Ken

Gerwig, 39, says she has “never known Barbie without knowing the argument against Barbie.” Growing up, “my mom was one of those moms who wasn’t so sure about Barbie, so my first experience with Barbie was that she was a bit forbidden. I got a lot of hand-me-downs from girls in the neighborhood who were already missing shoes and had crazy hair.

Talking to the film's cast and crew, she found that “everyone has an opinion about Barbie,” regardless of whether they grew up with them. Robbie would occasionally play with her cousin’s dolls, although she preferred building forts and making mud pies. Gosling’s daughters, meanwhile, helped him unlock “the emotional core” of Ken, who feels insecure and forgotten by Barbie.

“When we first talked, he said his daughters have Barbies and they did have a Ken somewhere, but he couldn’t find it,” Gerwig recalls. “And then he called me and said: ‘I found it. He’s under a rotting lemon outside, and I think that man’s story needs to be told.’ I was like, ‘You’re exactly right!’ ”

Margot Robbie says the film sparked 'big, profound conversations'

Since the movie’s most recent trailer in May, much of the excitement on social media has been around Gerwig’s ingenious eye for detail, whether it’s Barbie’s extravagant all-pink Dreamhouse or how she gracefully floats into her car (mimicking how a child might move their doll).

“Greta literally said, ‘I want everyone to feel like they can reach into the screen and pick everything up: every set, every prop, every costume,’” Robbie says.

Although she always figured the movie would be funny, what surprised the actress most was just how “moving” it ultimately is. After arriving in the real world, Barbie slowly starts to discover the breadth of human experience, from the catharsis of a good cry to the realization that change is inevitable.

“I didn’t know this character was going to get down into my bones in this way,” Robbie says. “I just didn’t ever expect to have so many big, profound conversations about the meaning of life or what true happiness is. I mean, we joke about an existential crisis, but it all did become very existential.”

As with every movie she has made, “you go on a journey with the character you’re playing and don’t really come out the other side the same. I just never expected to have this much empathy for a doll!”

'Life in plastic, it's fantastic!'Your guide to the 2023 'Barbie' movie starring Margot Robbie