To live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken.
GRETA GERWIG (Director/Writer/Executive Producer)
On making “Barbie”…
“Barbie has so much recognition, so much love, and of course a 60-plus-year history, which was exciting for me. As a writer and a director, I’m always looking for a fun challenge. As with Little Women, Barbie is a property we all know, but to me she felt like a character with a story to tell, one that I could find a new, unexpected way into, honoring her legacy while making her world feel fresh and alive and modern.”
On understanding Barbie…
“The idea of the multiplicity of the Barbies and then the Kens really did come out of my first meeting with Mattel, when I started talking about different characters and they said, ‘No, we don’t have different characters. All of these women are Barbie.’ And I replied that if all of these women are Barbie then Barbie is all of these women, and they said, ‘Yes.’”
On Barbies past…
“I grew up with Barbie, but I was always waiting for our neighbors’ children to grow tired of theirs so they would give me the hand-me-down Barbies. That was the big thing I was always looking forward to. I have a very vivid, visceral memory of Barbie and what it meant.”
On Margot Robbie as a producer…
“‘Barbie’ came to me through Margot Robbie. Margot was the one who had gotten the rights, had brought it to Warner Bros., had sort of spearheaded this whole project, and we had met, and I was a big fan of hers as an actress. But then when we talked, I realized what an incredible producer she was. She was super smart and extremely involved and really interesting.”
On Margot Robbie as Barbie…
“Margot is our Stereotypical Barbie, as she says in the film, ‘I’m the Barbie everyone thinks of when you think of Barbie.’ And when you think of the most beautiful, cheerful, friendly, blonde lady you’ve ever seen, that’s Margot. But the thing I wanted to do most of all was to allow her to be outrageously funny. She’s the person you’re going to go on a real journey with in the movie and because she’s always able to make things grounded, relatable, and very emotional even when it’s ridiculously heightened and funny, you never feel like you lose the humanity.”
On Ryan Gosling…
“We wrote this part specifically for Ryan Gosling. Even though he’s so wonderful in dramatic roles, I knew he was really funny as I had watched all his ‘Saturday Night Live’ appearances. There was no plan B. It was always Ryan.”
On pink…
“First and foremost, I wanted Barbie Land to feel like a happy place—where Barbie lives in our childhood imaginations. One of the first days I met with [production designer] Sarah Greenwood and the art team, we looked at all the different shades of pink to determine how they would interact. As a little girl, I liked the brightest pinks, but Barbie Land would incorporate the full spectrum of the color, so it was important to figure out where those bright pinks would live alongside our palest, pastel pink, and of course every tone of pink in between.”
On defying gravity…
“There’s no place for Newton’s laws in Barbie Land. There is no wind, there is no sun, no gravity and no water, but as filmmakers we do live in a world of physics, so when dealing with the reality of Barbie Land, there were the rules of Barbie Land and then there were the rules we’ve set up for the filmmaking, and then how those two things interacted. I’m in love with 1950s soundstage musicals, those wonderfully artificial spaces, and because Barbie was invented in 1959, it felt like we could ground everything in that look and not be so beholden to it. I want everyone to feel like they can reach up to the screen and touch everything, because that’s the great thing about dolls and toys. I remember standing in a Toys ‘R Us toy store, looking at Barbies and their accessories with the plastic over them, and wanting to take everything apart and touch everything!”
On the soundtrack and score…
“There’s a lot of music in the movie—that was always super important to me. Barbie has a level of optimism that influenced us when we were writing the script, a sort of sincerity mixed with joyfulness meets a ‘doesn’t everybody just want to dance?’ attitude. Mark [Ronson] really threaded that through the movie with the amazing artists who came in to contribute songs, like Dua Lipa, Lizzo, Nicki Minaj, Karol G…so many! It was such a treat to work with all these artists. And Mark and his partner, Andrew Wyatt, wrote an anthem of sorts for Ken, which Ryan sings, and it’s epic. We have a ballad that made me cry when I heard it. Mark and Andrew also wrote the score, and they wove that melody through several scenes.”
MARGOT ROBBIE (“Barbie” / Producer)
On making “Barbie”…
“Barbie is such a huge and globally recognized brand with so much nostalgic connection for people. Making a Barbie movie was an amazing opportunity, one we thought we could do something really special with if we could approach it in an unexpected, surprising and clever way. Like Greta has said, it was also terrifying! We knew it was a lot to take on, as audiences probably have a preconceived notion of how they think and feel about Barbie, whether good or bad. So, that presented a big challenge, but we were up for the challenge.”
On Greta Gerwig…
“Greta is an incredible director and writer and an auteur, and she’s going to be a part of that handful of film directors that defines the filmmaking of our era. And what’s amazing about her in particular is the way that she bridges the world between old-school filmmaking and her understanding and passion for the whole hundred years of film, with a very modern point of view on simply being a human in this world.”
“Greta has this superpower in the vibe she creates on set, which is so in line with what we wanted Barbie Land to be: bright, happy and supportive. Greta is the happiest, loveliest, most supportive director and she’s also insanely talented. She’s literally got Barbie energy.”
On Ryan Gosling…
“It was always Ryan. You’d think there are dozens of guys that could play Ken, but there’s actually not. Ryan ticked all the boxes. He’s a brilliant dramatic actor, he makes incredible choices, he can play the romantic and he can do comedy. And, of course, he also looks like Ken, he’s gorgeous.”
On Barbie Land…
“It’s simple: you got a car, you got a house and then you got a Ken and that’s the fun of this world, Barbie Land. It’s kind of a flipside of the real world where men are in charge. In Barbie Land it’s the opposite, women—Barbies—run everything.”
“We can all see each other—all the Barbies own their own Barbie DreamHouses, and when they wake up in the morning, they can wave at each other, totally see each other because there are no walls, and they love it, there is no embarrassment. It’s like the Garden of Eden before they felt the need to put clothes on. That’s what waking up in Barbie Land is like, except, of course, there are clothes, and they are fabulous!”
On dressing up as Barbie…
“Getting dressed is part of Barbie’s perfect day. Barbie wakes up in her bed, waves at the Barbie next door, she brushes her teeth, has a shower and then goes to her magic wardrobe to get her outfit for the day. She opens the doors and all she needs to do is look at it, give a spin and ‘poof’ it’s on her body. Then when she walks off, her outfit for the next day is sitting in the wardrobe behind her.”
“You’ll notice a lot of Chanel, Barbies like Chanel! I’ve got some great Chanel outfits in the film that I got to wear. The mentality with Barbie is that she has all the accessories—there’s always a hat or bow and earrings and jewelry. The jewelry is big in the way it would be on a doll: big plasticky necklaces and earrings. Hats are never for protection from the sun, they’re just another accessory, along with bags and shoes and all of it! It was really fun.”
“Our costume designer, Jacqueline Durran, was incredible; her approach to the arc of the film is subtle and maybe not something you’ll notice on first watch, but I think if you read this and then watch the film, you’ll see this evolution chronologically through decades of Barbie fashion. For example, my Barbie begins in this very controlled, safe existence, so her outfits are controlled, with clean lines, a lot of structure and strong colors. As she evolves through the story, that begins to change in her wardrobe as well, and she becomes softer.”
RYAN GOSLING (“Ken”)
On the screenplay…
“The script reminded me of everything I loved growing up, but somehow was still like nothing I had ever seen. It’s as funny as it is tragic. It’s as silly as it is profound. It’s all the things.”
On Greta Gerwig…
“She’s an incredibly inspiring, inclusive, brilliant person who encouraged everyone around her to take big swings and not limit ourselves by dividing our work into either drama or comedy.”
On Ken…
My Ken was created to just observe the awesomeness that is Barbie, and there’s even a line in the film when he says he only exists within the warmth of Barbie’s gaze. He has no identity of his own, so he’s in a kind of existential hell. But he’s given a job, which is ‘beach.’ And he’s not sure what that job is specifically, but he really wants to be good at it.”
On Ken’s journey…
“What prompts Ken to go on this journey with Barbie is that he’s been told that he’s her boyfriend, though there seems to be no other evidence of anything special in their dynamic. But they are a set and that is why he was created. So, for Ken it’s inconceivable for her to leave without him.”
DAVID HEYMAN (Producer)
On Barbie…
“Being human is a beautiful thing and I think Barbie is such a great vehicle and a great character with which to explore that. In Barbie Land, every day is a perfect day and Barbie, the doll, is a representation of an ideal. But Barbie in the film ultimately embraces the imperfection and messiness that is life.”
On Margot Robbie…
“Margot brings a spirit, both as a producer and as a performer, of curiosity, of enthusiasm, of possibility. And she is fiercely intelligent. For this role it’s essential that you have someone who can go on that journey of discovery and is able to access the heart and the humanity of the character, and at the same time have a keen sense of humor played with absolute sincerity, without any guile.”
On Greta Gerwig…
“It has been a privilege to work with Greta. She is a writer and director (and actor) with boundless talent. She is incredibly ambitious for the work creatively, cinematically, thematically, intellectually. And at the same time she is acutely aware of the audience and has a desire to entertain. This film is a comedy and it’s hysterically funny; it also has soul and meaning and resonance and nuance and is deeply affecting and moving. Greta, as she’s shown in her previous films, is able to do that with such ease and dexterity, to tell a rich layered story, with humanity and heart.”
TOM ACKERLEY (Producer)
On making “Barbie”…
“It’s both a great opportunity in that everybody knows Barbie and the audience for this movie is potentially bigger than any than movie we’ve produced before, but the challenges of that are preconceived notions. But it also has no narrative and the ability to create one and build upon what Mattel has already done is really exciting. All these new words we’ve learned, like toyetic, everything had to be delicious and tactile and toyetic, that was part of the learning experience for us as well.”
On the “Barbie” ensemble cast…
“We were floored by the group of people that were willing to come be a part of this movie. Even just talking about the Barbies and Kens exclusively, to be able to be in the presence of so much joy that was created with them. We really had them all together for such a short period of time, but you immediately wanted the shoot to go on longer, especially during the dance party. All those people in the same space at the same time, dancing and having fun—I wanted to be over there. I was like, ‘Why do I have to be in a production office for this?’”
ROBBIE BRENNER (Producer)
On discovering Barbie’s path to the big screen…
“When I first got to Mattel to run the movie division, I went through all the IP and created a list of the hundreds of titles that felt good for theatrical. I never thought Barbie would be the first to become a movie because Barbie is so open-ended, Barbie could be so many things, and because everybody has a relationship with Barbie, it felt like a Herculean task to figure out what a Barbie movie would be about. But when we met with Margot [Robbie] and she introduced the idea of Greta [Gerwig], our adventure really began. Then, when I read the script, I just thought, ‘Wow.’ I mean, it was one of the most unique scripts I had ever read in my life, just an incredible kind of ‘Wizard of Oz’ journey in such a fun way.”
On representing Barbie…
“Mattel takes Barbie very seriously. They’ve sent her to the moon, she’s been the President. The goal is always to make her inspirational and aspirational, and there are new Barbies every year. It’s amazing how Barbie has evolved as something really wonderful to play with and also to dream with. That said, there are people who aren’t fans of Barbie, and Greta and Noah [Baumbach] did what they do so brilliantly, which is to explore all sides of Barbie and of the conversation around Barbie. By laughing with and embracing all things about Barbie at the same time makes the movie complex, interesting and simply brilliant. That’s what makes the film a fun and funny and deep and emotional experience for everyone. It really just hits you in so many ways.”
THE BARBIES
Kate McKinnon (Barbie): “We were in a playwriting class together and Greta is a genius, and it was absolutely no surprise when she became an award-winning writer and director. Someone told me that she was making the Barbie movie and I thought, perfect. And my agent told me about the role of this Barbie, and I thought, ‘Okay, I’m home. If you asked me to pick a role for myself, it would be this Barbie. My sister had a bunch of Barbies whose hair she brushed and whose clothes she cared for, but there was one receptacle of her ire that got its head shaved. You keep a Barbie with her legs splayed as far as they will go—it’s just a Barbie that every little girl grew up with.”
Issa Rae (Barbie): “The most flattering thing in the world is when Greta said, ‘You know, when I was thinking about who I wanted to be President in this world, I thought wouldn’t it be cool if Issa were President?’ And I was like, ‘What, me?’ To have the opportunity to play President of all the Barbies, even though all Barbies can do anything and are capable of everything, is such a treat.”
Hari Nef (Barbie): “There’s a streak of satire and absurdism in the framework of Barbie Land that addresses and pokes fun at the culture we live in, which is amazing because girls can and should be everything. That can put a lot of pressure on the girls to be everything, but in “Barbie,” Greta creates this nuanced dynamic where we revel in things and laugh at them at the same time. I think the person who owns me is a 38-year-old gay man who lives in the West Village and collects dolls, because honey, this outfit is perfectly preserved in the box! This is no child’s play!”
Alexandra Shipp (Barbie): “It was beautiful to see the various types of Barbies that Greta brought in with the main cast and also the supporting artists—people from all ethnic backgrounds, of all sizes, some differently abled. I think that it’s important for people to see that Barbies don’t just look like Margot, and that means a lot. Greta’s approach to what makes each Barbie unique was a mixture of getting to know us as individual humans, and then fusing that with what she saw for these various Barbies.”
Emma Mackey (Barbie): “One thing that Greta was very specific about is that we were all one. We are all one same being, but we are all different idiosyncratic representations of that one same bundle of Barbie.”
Sharon Rooney (Barbie): “The most important thing Greta said, and the thing that I’ve carried with me, is that Barbie is everything and she is anything; there’s nothing she can’t do and there’s no one she can’t be. I think the other girls would say they’ve taken this with them as well: We are all Barbie, and we can all do everything, and we can do it all really well.”
Ana Cruz Kayne (Barbie): “I have a very diverse background as my mom is from the Philippines and my father is a Jewish man, and so I was raised deeply in both cultures. And I don’t think that is a unique story to me. I think there are many people walking around this world who hold two cultures very richly in their lives and they don’t present one physically and phenotypically, but it is actually extremely unique to them and a big part of their background. My Barbie represents those people, and I feel emotional about it because I rarely get to be all the parts of myself and represent a sliver of those people who are not other, but everything.”
Emerald Fennell (Midge): “The running gag throughout the film is that Midge is constantly trying to get into shot and the camera constantly shies away from her. In terms of self-esteem as an actress, having the camera actively moving away from you can be somewhat devastating, but I knew what I signed up for!.”
JUST THE KENS
Kingsley Ben-Adir “My choice was that, in some ways, this guy doesn’t have a brain, and I wanted him to represent those dudes I grew up with who really sort of pick a leader to follow and base all of their thoughts and opinions around someone else, because they don’t know what to think. And what’s really made this so fun was that I didn’t really know what I was doing until I saw what Ryan was doing. It became really playful and spontaneous, and every time I would see the scene in my head, we ended up playing it in a completely different way.”
Simu Liu “Kens are just Kens. They just hang around and a lot of their identity is derived from being able to win the gaze of the Barbies, and so they are really just kind of hypercompetitive about really dumb things. It’s revealed that my Ken is a skilled dancer, and he can do backflips and Ryan’s Ken really resents that.”
Ncuti Gatwa “My Ken is a little bit softer and more vulnerable. I think he’s just happy to kind of be a part of a ‘thing.’ He just wants to be involved and be included and loves that Kens are all there for each other. It’s an amazing and precise social commentary on society and gender norms, done in a pink, fluffy way.”
Scott Evans “Coming in, the Kens all had a general sense of who they were and what their jobs were, which is called ‘beach.’ Greta explained that the Kens don’t really have houses and they don’t really have jobs. They don’t really have anything! I took on the role of a more dramatic Ken, and then there was Kingsley, who was just a sort of wide-eyed Ken, and Ncuti, who played a very sweet and simple Ken.”
OH, YEAH, AND ALLAN
Michael Cera “The way that Greta and Noah handle my character in the movie is that Allan’s sort of this marginalized person in this world of Kens; he’s basically not a success or popular. He’s just a loner, always on the periphery, desperate to fit in but really just not on the same wavelength as the Ken fraternity around him.”
