As ‘Barbie’ fans gathered at the Alamo Drafthouse in New York for the Barbie premiere on Friday, director Greta Gerwig stopped by for a surprise visit.

In an Instagram video posted by writer David Mack, Gerwig was seen in a denim jumpsuit and cap addressing the audience. “I can’t tell you how happy I am that you guys are all here,” she said. “When we made this movie we made it with so much joy and hope, and we hoped that people would go back to the movie theatre and be together and want to laugh and cry and dance and experience things together. And this is just fucking extraordinary.”

Journalist Ayanna Prescod later tweeted, “Greta Gerwig crashed a Barbie screening at the Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyn tonight and that’s why that theater will always be superior.”

The film debuted on Friday to high praise from both critics and fans (right-wing backlash aside). In a review of ‘Barbie’ ahead of its release, Rolling Stone’s David Fear declared the movie was “the most subversive blockbuster of the 21st century to date.” He later added, “It’s definitely not a bad thing to turn a potential franchise, whether built on a line of dolls or not, into something that refuses to dumb itself down or pander to the lowest common denominator.”

During an interview with Rolling Stone, Gerwig revealed how one of the film’s most touching scenes almost got cut. In the scene, Margo Robbie’s Barbie sees an older woman on a beach, played by legendary costumer designer Ann Roth, and tells her she’s beautiful. “It’s a cul-de-sac of a moment, in a way — it doesn’t lead anywhere,” said the director. “And in early cuts, looking at the movie, it was suggested, ‘Well, you could cut it. And actually, the story would move on just the same.’ And I said, ‘If I cut the scene, I don’t know what this movie is about.’”