Did you think the year of Barbie was over? Think again.
The billion-dollar blockbuster was easily the biggest movie of 2023, and now, heading into the 2024 season, it’s garnering major awards buzz, too. Stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling and director and screenwriter Greta Gerwig are all already nominated for this weekend’s Golden Globe Awards, and this year’s Academy Award nominations will be announced on January 23.
This project marked the first live-action film from the Barbie franchise (although for decades, the character has headlined countless animated movies and TV shows) and the first movie deal for Mattel Films, the film division of the multinational brand behind Barbie and other iconic toys. (Following the company’s success with Barbie, a live-action Polly Pocket film starring Emily in Paris’s Lily Collins is already under way.) Here’s everything to know about Barbie.
The film is a subversive satire.
“Since the first little girl ever existed, there have been dolls,” British acting legend Helen Mirren declares in a solemn voiceover as the first teaser trailer for Barbie opens. In the clip, which came out in December 2022m, the camera pans over a group of little girls sitting desolately in a desert landscape. “But the dolls were always and forever baby dolls, until …”
Enter a gigantic Robbie, outfitted as the Mattel doll’s first iteration, from 1959, with a pin-up ponytail and in a black-and-white striped swimsuit.
View full post on YoutubeThe next trailer, released in April 2023, still did not make the film’s plot entirely clear, but hinted at trouble in paradise for Robbie’s Barbie and her boyfriend, Ken (played by Gosling). In the clip, Barbie seems to want some independence and space, while Ken acts quite clingy. What could this mean for the rest of the Barbie-verse!?
View full post on XIn the film’s third, full-length trailer, we learn more about the story. Barbie and Ken venture off into “the real world” (after a hilariously Barbie-fied Kate McKinnon asks Barbie to make a symbolic choice between stiletto heels and a pair of Birkenstocks), where they soon discover how patriarchal norms dominate our society. Released in May 2023, the new trailer also offers more information about the movie’s soundtrack, which will feature new music from Dua Lipa and Nicki Minaj.
View full post on YoutubeThere are a whopping 24 official posters featuring the full cast.
Fans got a first look at the full cast of Barbie when the film’s official social media channels shared 24 individual posters featuring the core cast of Barbies, Kens, and other characters! The new posters confirmed some long-rumored casting decisions, including Dua Lipa as Mermaid Barbie. See all of the posters here.
View full post on XView full post on XView full post on XMargot Robbie already looks the part.
In a first-look photo shared at CinemaCon 2022, fans got to see Robbie in the titular role. In the image, she was riding around in a pink convertible, sporting a headband and a matching halter top.
View full post on XThe studio also shared a glimpse of Gosling in character as Ken. He looked almost unrecognizable in a denim vest, matching jeans, platinum-blond hair and a serious faux tan.
View full post on XRobbie said she was “honored” to take on the role.
In a press release, Robbie praised Barbie for promoting “confidence, curiosity and communication” through childhood, and empowering kids “to imagine themselves in aspirational roles from a princess to president.”
“I’m so honored to take on this role and produce a film that I believe will have a tremendously positive impact on children and audiences worldwide,” she said in her statement.
The actor has undergone some impressive transformations for her previous roles, which include Harley Quinn in two Suicide Squad movies, Tonya Harding in I, Tonya, and Queen Elizabeth I in Mary Queen of Scots. And although some might be quick to tout the classically beautiful blonde actor as a real-life Barbie, Robbie has generally avoided being typecast based on her looks.
“When I was trying to make my name as an actress, creative roles for women were limited,” she told Harper’s Bazaar in her December 2018/January 2019 cover story. “I didn’t want to pick up another script where I was the wife or the girlfriend—just a catalyst for the male storyline. It was uninspiring.”
Rumors of Robbie’s casting circulated for years.
Speculation about Robbie’s casting as Barbie first began in 2015, after a Sony email leak revealed she was among the actors being considered to play the famous doll. In October 2018, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed Robbie was in talks to star in and produce the film with Warner Bros.
She wasn’t the only star attached to the film. In 2016, Amy Schumer reportedly landed the role, but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts, according to THR. In 2017, Anne Hathaway was reported as a possible star.
Greta Gerwig directed and wrote it.
Greta Gerwig was first attached to the Barbie flick in 2019, when she was confirmed to write the script with husband Noah Baumbach. In July 2021, sources confirmed to Variety that the Little Women filmmaker would direct the film as well. (Robbie also mentioned it in an interview around the same time.)
It came out in theaters in 2023.
Fans had to wait a couple of years to see the film come to life, as Gerwig and Baumbach had to work on his adaptation of Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise before production for Barbie began in early 2022 at Warner Bros.’ Leavesden Studios in London, Variety reported. Barbie was finally released in theaters across the United States on Friday, July 21, 2023.
Ryan Gosling is Ken.
The film landed another heavy hitter for its male lead. Deadline reported in October 2021 that Gosling was in final negotiations to play Ken. The La La Land star was apparently the studio’s only choice from the very start, and he signed on after finding an opening in his schedule.
Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Hari Nef, and other stars are in the jam-packed cast.
Cast announcements rolled out for weeks and months, with other major stars joining Robbie and Gosling in the film, including: McKinnon, America Ferrera, Shang-Chi star Simu Liu, Will Ferrell, And Just Like That…’s Hari Nef, Issa Rae, Michael Cera, Alexandra Shipp, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Rhea Perlman, Sex Education’s Ncuti Gatwa, Oscar winner Emerald Fennell, Sharon Rooney, Scott Evans, Ana Cruz Kayne, Connor Swindells, Ritu Arya, and Jamie Demetriou. The casting of Sex Education star Emma Mackey drew attention because she and Robbie look quite similar.
There is a big dance sequence.
While most of the cast stayed tight-lipped about what to expect from Barbie, Liu mentioned in interviews that he appeared in a huge dance scene. He first teased the dance in a GQ UK interview in May 2022, noting that he’d been cast after telling Gerwig about his hip-hop dance experience.
“Greta was talking about how much she loved watching men dance, because it’s such an expression of artistry you’re not used to seeing from typical men,” he said.
Liu also mentioned the dance sequence in an Entertainment Weekly interview around the same time, saying the Barbie set felt like the actors were just hanging out, having fun, and dancing. Though he didn’t mention who else was involved in the scene, there were rumors about some unconfirmed parts.
