Oliver Stone Apologizes For His “Barbie” Criticism

Filmmaker Oliver Stone has decided to apologize after his dismissive comments about “Barbie” went viral.

A few weeks ago, I had reported on an interview Stone gave in late 2023, with a UK publication, in it he went into a full-on rant about not just “Barbie,” but also the industry, which he found was devolving into a sort of infantilized fantasy land:

“Ryan Gosling is wasting his time if he’s doing that s— for money. He should be doing more serious films. He shouldn’t be a part of this infantilization of Hollywood. Now it’s all fantasy, fantasy, fantasy, including all the war pictures: fantasy, fantasy.”

Earlier this week, Deadline picked up on my story and decided to also publish Stone’s comments. This has all led to Stone having to now backtrack his “Barbie” criticism (via his social media). He says he made those comments without having actually seen the film.

At the time, I was busy promoting my nuclear documentary in Europe and had little to no knowledge of [“Barbie”] beyond its title. I was able to see “Barbie” in a theater back in July and appreciated the film for its originality and its themes. I found the filmmakers’ approach certainly different than what I expected. I apologize for speaking ignorantly.

Stone didn’t stop there. He went on to praise Gerwig’s 2017 film “Ladybird” which he says was “one of my favorites of that year” along with the impact “Barbie” has had on the “morale of our business.”