'Three takes in, I was crying.' The story behind *that* incredible Barbie monologue.

The Barbie movie is full of memorable moments.

Some of them are just outrageous, like the many 'beach you off' jokes. Some of them are a multitude of Kens, performing a song about being Ken. Some of them are SUBLIME.

But the biggest moment comes at its most earnest, when America Ferrera's character Gloria — a Mattel employee in the real world who is the catalyst for Barbie's existential crisis — delivers a monologue about the difficulties of being a woman. 

Spoilers ahead, FYI!

In the film, Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) is feeling despondent about the Ken's changes the Barbie Land and embracing of patriarchy, which leads her to crippling self-doubt (been there!).

Listen: Mamamia's daily entertainment podcast The Spill reviews Barbie. Post continues below audio.

"I'm not smart enough to be interesting. I can't do brain surgery. I've never flown a plane. I'm not president. No one on the Supreme Court is me. I'm not good enough for anything," she says.

It is here that America Ferrera's Gloria delivers a rousing monologue about how it is impossible it is to be a woman in the way society wants us to be a woman, because society is inherently set up for us to fail.

During the promotion of the film, director Greta Gerwig explained why the movie's big moment was given to Gloria, rather than its namesake.

"America's [Gloria is] a human, America's us," Gerwig told the Los Angeles Times. "America has lived in the world as a person and can kind of articulate all this. Barbie just got flat feet yesterday.

"When I was working with America in rehearsal she shared with me, from years earlier, something she'd written in a notebook, which was astonishingly similar to what the speech was. And it was like that thing in The Shining: 'It was always you.' We'd been, each in our way, coming to this moment. When she gave that speech, it was coming from such an unadorned true place inside of her."

Ferrera said it resonated with her immediately.

"There's no woman in my life who those words aren't true for. Not a single one. And when we hear the truth, it hits in a certain way, and you can't unhear it, right?"

She joked to Entertainment Weekly that Gerwig told her even Meryl Streep said she wanted to do the monologue. No pressure!

Image: Warner Bros.

Ferrera told Vanity Fair she had anticipated delivering the speech with humour or in a more 'Barbie Land' tone to make it more easily digestible for audiences, but Gerwig, who wrote it, told her to play it straight.

Ferrera said she probably delivered the speech 30 to 50 times over two days of filming.

"Truly, every take was very different. There were takes that leaned into anger. There were takes that leaned into laughter. It really did, over the course of filming, find a shape. It was about just staying as present in the moment and just seeing really where the words would take it," she explained.

Audiences have obviously responded to the scene since the release of the film, but Gerwig also recalled getting emotional herself during its creation.

"Three takes in, I was crying," she told The New York Times. "Then I looked around, and everyone was crying - even the men were tearing up. I suddenly thought that this tightrope she's explaining is something that is present for women in the way that she's describing it, but it's also present for everybody. Everybody is afraid they're going to put a foot wrong and it's all going to come crashing down... she was giving people permission to step off that tightrope. I don't think I realised until then that's what that moment was for."

Feel like getting emotional yourself? Here is Gloria's Barbie monologue in full:

It is literally impossible to be a woman. You are so beautiful, and so smart, and it kills me that you don't think you're good enough. Like, we have to always be extraordinary, but somehow we're always doing it wrong.

You have to be thin, but not too thin. And you can never say you want to be thin. You have to say you want to be healthy, but also you have to be thin. You have to have money, but you can't ask for money because that's crass. You have to be a boss, but you can't be mean. You have to lead, but you can't squash other people's ideas. You're supposed to love being a mother, but don't talk about your kids all the damn time. You have to be a career woman, but also always be looking out for other people. You have to answer for men's bad behaviour, which is insane, but if you point that out, you're accused of complaining. You're supposed to stay pretty for men, but not so pretty that you tempt them too much or that you threaten other women because you're supposed to be a part of the sisterhood.

But always stand out and always be grateful. But never forget that the system is rigged. So find a way to acknowledge that but also always be grateful. You have to never get old, never be rude, never show off, never be selfish, never fall down, never fail, never show fear, never get out of line. It's too hard! It's too contradictory and nobody gives you a medal or says thank you! And it turns out in fact that not only are you doing everything wrong, but also everything is your fault.

I'm just so tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie herself into knots so that people will like us. And if all of that is also true for a doll just representing women, then I don't even know.

Cue the theatre applause.

Read more:

• From hidden details to feeling unrepresented, here's what America Ferrera and Issa Rae want you to know before you see Barbie.
• 'Give him the Oscar, right now.' 22 thoughts I had while watching Barbie.
• Just 18 subtle references you may have missed while watching Barbie.
• There's one moment in the Barbie movie that's making women sob in their seats.
• The dark stories behind the discontinued dolls spotted in the Barbie movie.
• 'We cried so much.' I asked Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig about Barbie's biggest scandals.

Feature image: Warner Bros.

As women our bodies are constantly changing! Tell us about your experience and go in the running to win one of four $50 gift vouchers.