‘I was made a buffoon in Barbie. It was brilliant’

Greta Gerwig, the Hollywood director famed for her Barbie movie, must have been nervous when she first presented her script to Ynon Kreiz, the suited, serious and deadpan boss of Mattel. As chief executive and chairman of the toy company that owns Barbie, he could have demanded a rewrite ahead of filming.

“In that script, Barbie is a fascist,” recalls Kreiz, with a glint in his eyes. “Mattel is the worst in corporate America and I am a chauvinist buffoon. I thought … it’s brilliant.”

Many chief executives might have recoiled at the idea of being satirised on the big screen. But Kreiz, whose company also owns and makes Hot Wheels cars, Magic 8 balls and the Uno card game, just shrugs. “We take what