Greta Gerwig wants everyone who sees 'Barbie' to feel like she did during childhood Shabbat dinners: 'Blessed'

• Greta Gerwig wants "Barbie" viewers to feel "blessed" when they see the film this summer.
• "I want people to feel like I did at Shabbat dinner," Gerwig told The New York Times.

"Barbie" director Greta Gerwig wants watchers of her highly-anticipated summer blockbuster to feel one thing when they sit in their movie theater recliners.

"I want people to feel like I did at Shabbat dinner," Gerwig told the New York Times. "I want them to get blessed."

Gerwig explained that although she grew up Christain, her family's closest friends were Jewish, and they often invited Gerwig's family to partake in Shabbat dinners on Friday nights.

The weekly gatherings, often complete with traditional Jewish meals, wine, family, and friends, celebrate the restful end of the work week and include blessings over most of the components of the event.

In Gerwig's case, she recalled her friends' father singing blessings over the children in Hebrew, placing his hand on her head, just as he did for his own kids.

"I remember feeling the sense of, 'Whatever your wins and losses were for the week, whatever you did or you didn't do, when you come to this table, your value has nothing to do with that,'" Gerwig told the Times.

She continued: "'You are a child of God. I put my hand over you, and I bless you as a child of God at this table. And that's your value.' I remember feeling so safe in that and feeling so, like, enough."

That's what she hopes viewers will get out of "Barbie."

Gerwig told The Times that she imaged people escaping the heat of Summer to watch Barbie in a cool movie theater, where they would be transported out of their lives into a new world for two glorious hours.

"Barbie" hits the big screen on July 21.

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