Interesting Facts About The Barbie Movie Cast

Not only has the "Barbie" movie been a huge critical and commercial success, but it has also permeated culture in a way that few movies do. People have started dressing in hot pink and other vibrant hues, which the fashion world has dubbed "Barbiecore," and "Barbie" is being promoted everywhere, from home décor website "Ruggable" to ice cream shop Cold Stone Creamery — not places we would have anticipated prior to seeing the film. 

There are tons of other "Barbie" brand collabs too, including ones with Beis Travel, Primark, Burger King, Fossil, and Crocs. And sure, there are some traditionalist men freaking out about the movie online, but that is to be expected with the film's commentary on the rigidity of gender roles, cultural stereotypes, beauty ideals, female empowerment, and male fragility (Newsweek has written about "How Men Are Watching Barbie Wrong").

Critics have applauded the film — it has an 88% Tomatometer score at Rotten Tomatoes — and audiences have largely embraced it. The release of "Barbie" at the same time as "Oppenheimer" also became a big thing, with people attending both films in one day as part of the "Barbenheimer" trend. While both films have performed incredibly at the box office, "Barbie" is far and away the leader. It has set many records, including becoming the first movie directed by a solo female to pass the billion-dollar mark (only three weeks after its release, no less). In light of all this, we wanted to highlight the film's amazing cast, so here are some interesting "Barbie" facts about the film's stars.

Margo Robbie first approached Mattel with her idea for a "Barbie" film in 2018, but it was not until writer/director Greta Gerwig came aboard that the project really took shape. Robbie was not expecting to play the icon when she first brought the concept to Gerwig, but we cannot picture anyone else doing it justice. Not only does Robbie look like a Barbie, but we know from films like "I, Tonya" and "Bombshell" that she has serious acting chops. 

Once she came to her senses, Robbie obviously found her way to the meat of the role. "I hadn't played a character that had gone on a classic hero's journey before. So that was really interesting," Robbie told The New York Times. "I didn't want her to come across as vapid or unintelligent because she is really intelligent."

Robbie did not just inhabit Barbie on screen, but she also made sure the character's love of pink infiltrated the set. She mandated a once-a-week "pink day" where everyone on set had to wear the color and, if they did not, they were fined and the money went to charity. "What was really special was just how excited the male crew members were. At the end of the film, they all got together and, with their own money, made pink crew shirts with rainbow fringe," co-star Ryan Gosling told People. Gosling got his own special treats as well, as Robbie promised to give him a daily (pink) gift if he did the film.

Ryan Gosling has shown that he can expertly do drama (see: "Blue Valentine" or "The Notebook), action (see: "Drive" or "The Gray Man"), and even musicals, like "La La Land." He has taken on comedy too, in films such as "Crazy, Stupid, Love" and "The Nice Guys," but not to the degree that the over-the-top, campy role required of him in "Barbie." 

Knowing how hilarious Gosling can be in interviews, we had no doubts about his casting, but the actor himself was not at first sure it was a good fit. "I doubted what I've come to understand as 'Kenergy.' But at the end of the day, I trust Margot and Greta. They have such a clear vision for this that I decided to just Ken as hard as I could," Gosling told The New York Times.

Even Gosling's two young daughters were confused about why he would want to play Ken, who they hilariously call Darrell and see as a non-important part of Barbie's world. In fact, when Gosling went looking for his daughters' Ken doll after getting the "Barbie" script, he found Ken face down in the dirt — a photo of which he immediately texted to Greta Gerwig and then showed off on "The Tonight Show" many months later. But once he signed on to the role, Gosling found that drawing on who he was as a kid helped him connect to Ken and find his inner Kenergy. "There's something about this Ken that really, I think, relates to that version of myself," he told GQ.

America Ferrera is one of the few notable "Barbie" actors who plays a human rather than a doll, but it is her character, Gloria, who gives the monologue that has everyone talking — a speech so affecting that many women have reported being moved to tears in the theater (and according to Greta Gerwig, on set as well). 

"There were no targets to hit. It was much more a moment-to-moment drop in. Truly, every take was very different," Ferrera explained to Vanity Fair. "There were takes that leaned into anger. There were takes that leaned into laughter. It really did, over the course of filming, find a shape."

Ferrera might have given the monologue at the heart of "Barbie," but she went into the project feeling less connected to the doll brand than many of the other female actors. One reason Ferrera never got into Barbies was because her family was poor and could not afford the dolls when she was young (let alone the wardrobe and dreamhouse and pink convertible!). But there's another reason she did not play with the dolls. "They just didn't resonate with me. I didn't see myself reflected in that world in a way that captured my imagination," Ferrera said in a Harper's Bazaar UK article. In an interview with Remezcla, the actor — whose likeness has been made into a Barbie, representing the first Central American doll ever — said she is now starting to be able to find space for herself within the broadened narrative.

Ariana Greenblatt is young — she turns 16 on August 27, 2023 — but she is already an industry vet who has appeared in huge projects like "Avengers: Infinity War" and "In The Heights." She even had a main role in the three-season sitcom "Stuck in the Middle," but just because Greenblatt has worked in Hollywood for a while doesn't mean that she does not still get starstruck. 

Even though the "Barbie" cast includes many huge names, one name in particular caused Greenblatt to totally fangirl out. "I didn't even realize he was in the movie until I was filming with him, and I see Michael Cera walking towards me and freaked out internally, because Superbad is one of my favorite movies ever," she said in a Teen Vogue interview. "So I was like, 'There is no possible way.' It was just such a fun surprise."

Greenblatt plays Sasha, the angsty daughter of America Ferrera's Gloria, and though her character is a part of the human world, she did get to share a few scenes with Cera, who appears in the film as Ken's oft-forgotten friend Allan. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Greenblatt and Cera even became pals on set — their thing was playing Wordle together — but only after she was done geeking out over her celeb obsession. "I love him more than anyone on that set that loves him," she said in The Hollywood Reporter piece. "I watched Superbad for a week straight in my trailer for lunch just to cope."

Simu Liu's career has exploded in recent years thanks to his lead role in Marvel's "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," and this breakthrough part has led to a slew of opportunities for Liu. On the face of things, "Barbie" and a superhero flick might seem incredibly different, but Liu has explained how his past fighting experience helped him play a Ken — particularly when it came to the show-stopping dance number. "It's all choreography, right?" he noted in a Men's Health interview. "Whether you're fighting people on a bus or doing a multi-person dance sequence in a cul-de-sac in Barbie Dream World. It's cool to trade the gloves and the pads for a dance studio with a ballet bar."

Whereas his co-star Issa Rae said to E! Online that her first day on set, where she had to dance, was the "worst day of my life," Liu was more than ready to bust some moves — and not just because of his fighting experience. Liu was actually on a hip-hop dance team as a student at the University of Western Ontario, and he has said he thinks it may have helped him get the role in "Barbie." "One of my first conversations with Greta, I told her, 'Well, I don't want to brag, but I was on my university's hip-hop dance team.' And she literally screamed," he explained to Vanity Fair. "So I feel like that ended up playing a very critical role in me getting this project."

Choreographed dancing is not the only thing Issa Rae worried about going into "Barbie" — the star is absolutely not a fan of the color pink. And since pink is Barbie's trademark color — not a subtle pink either, but a hue so vibrant it could wake the dead — Rae had to weigh whether she could stomach it. "I hate the colour pink. I've never thought that I looked good in pink ... but I've been taking one for the team," she said in an interview with The Guardian. Like her fellow castmates, Rae showed up for press interviews and premieres in pink attire — and even if she doesn't, we think she looked great in the color.

Though she may not be adopting any flamingos, Rae clearly had a good time making "Barbie" and even praised the costumes in an interview with Teen Vogue (and yes, there's a lot of pink!). She has also noted her excitement at being part of the film, which Greta Gerwig sold her on by emphasizing its absurdist nature. "She was like, 'The reason I don't want to just send you the script is because I want to give you context first ... It's kind of batsh*t,'" recalled Rae in a Glamour interview. 

Rae put much thought into every aspect of her character, including intentionally showing a variety of hair textures throughout the film. "I also wanted to incorporate being a Black woman Barbie, and we change our hair a lot," she told Essence.

Even if you did not know of Scottish actor Sharon Rooney prior to the "Barbie" film, we are sure you noticed her presence and comedic chops on screen as one of the key Barbies. Rooney — whose previous credits include "My Mad Fat Diary" and "Dumbo" — plays Lawyer Barbie in the film, and as such, she is involved in many of the important moments in Barbie Land. 

For Rooney, playing a Barbie was a dream come true and a gift for her childhood self, who was a fan of the dolls. "I think for me, in my head I thought, little me would love this. Little me would be like, there's me as a Barbie!" she said in a Harper's Bazaar Australia interview. "And I just think for everyone, we all still have that inner child, right? She's still in there. And now's her time to shine."

As a plus-size woman, Rooney told Glamour UK that she did not always see herself in Barbie, despite loving the doll, because they did not look alike. In previous interviews, however, Rooney has expressed having a strong body image despite the pressures of Hollywood. "I've always looked the same. I've just been bigger. It's never been an issue, but I can see why in this industry it can be a nightmare," she once told The Guardian. Thankfully, the "Barbie" experience proved to be empowering for Rooney, who enjoyed her time on set and told Glamour UK that the costume fittings were the best she had ever had.

If you have seen "Barbie," then you know that Kate McKinnon was a true scene-stealer as Weird Barbie. And if you have not yet seen "Barbie," you probably could have predicted that anyway if you have seen McKinnon perform in, well, anything. The "Saturday Night Live" vet is absolutely hilarious, with her comedic timing perfectly matched by her expert physical comedy skills. She puts all of this to use in "Barbie," where she gets to be her wackiest self as a character who lives outside the norms of Barbie Land. 

As part of the process of crafting the character, McKinnon became very involved in the aesthetic choices for Weird Barbie, beginning with the costume. "The costume involved an imagining and I was like, 'Well, what does she wear?' Because Weird Barbies typically have been stripped of all of their clothes and possessions, but I didn't want to be naked in the movie," she explained to Collider.

Weird Barbie was ultimately dressed in an oversized dress meant for a baby doll and not a Barbie, which was instrumental in crafting the oddball character's eccentric look. Hair was also an important piece of the puzzle, as was the marker scribbled on Weird Barbie's face. "It's based on the Barbie that I think we all had where you'd cut the hair off and burn the clothes and draw on it," McKinnon explained on "Good Morning America." "Actually, a lot of thought goes into all of those elements and so, it was very exciting to work on that look."

Though it's rare nowadays, some celebrities — like Kate Winslet, George Clooney, and Scarlett Johansson — choose to stay away from Instagram, Twitter, and the like. Michael Cera is another star who does not use social media, and the actor is so aware of the way technology invades our lives that he won't even use a Smartphone. 

"Because everybody does it, it starts to feel like a big choice [to avoid it]. But it's just not interesting to me," Cera told The Hollywood Reporter of social media. "But I also don't have a smartphone. And that is a conscious choice, because I feel a bit of fear about it honestly like I'd really lose control of my waking life." The actor told The Guardian that he has developed tricks to survive without a Smartphone, like drawing maps before leaving home.

Cera's flip phone did cause a slight issue for the actor during the making of "Barbie" when all of the other actors playing Barbie Land characters created a group chat that he could not access. The exclusion actually worked for Cera — famous for playing socially awkward characters in projects like "Arrested Development" — due to his character's role as an outsider. "I still think I wouldn't belong on [the group chat] anyway, because [my character] Allan is sort of in his own little world," he explained to People. His exclusion from the chat, plus an NSYNC album from Gerwig, ended up helping him shape Allan's character.

Scott Evans — whose resume includes "One Life to Live" and appearances on series such as "Grace and Frankie" and "With Love" — acts in "Barbie" as one of the Kens, and we hope the role increases the actor's future opportunities. Ken seems like a role Evans was meant to play, and he leans into the campiness with ease, cowboy hat and all. 

You can really feel the chemistry between the actors, so we were not entirely shocked to learn that Greta Gerwig insisted that the Kens bond for a few weeks before filming. "I was like, this is a job? I get to wake up every day and hang out in the gym with these guys and then go dance with everybody? The dynamic with all of us, we ended up becoming such a family," Evans told Metrosource.

Evans had to leave Los Angeles for the United Kingdom, where the film was shot, only three days after getting his offer. And that is not the only part of the process that moved quickly, as the offer came only hours after he met with Gerwig. A month after submitting a self-taped audition, Evans was, hysterically, rollerblading when he got word that Gerwig wanted to meet (a good Ken never goes anywhere without his rollerblades!). The two immediately bonded on Zoom and the rest is Hollywood history. "I had the meeting and then a couple hours later, they were like, 'You got the offer.' I cried very hard, like, I was hyperventilating, proudly crying," Evans told Attitude.

As Collider noted, we love that model and actor Hari Nef's Doctor Barbie is treated as just another Barbie, and that Nef's identity as a trans woman is not even a factor in Barbie Land. Still, we would be naïve to ignore the significance of such representation. "As much as there's a celebration of femininity and being a girl in this [movie], I think there's also an encouragement of letting go of the checklist we ascribe to living and living your life and being in your body your way, on your own terms," Nef said in an Out interview. "The best that we can do as women, as trans women, is be there for each other and take ourselves at face value, without relying on the green light from someone or anyone else."

Nef almost did not get to star in "Barbie" due to scheduling conflicts, but the team made it work for her after she wrote an impassioned letter to Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, explaining her take on the importance and impact of Barbie as an icon (she later posted an excerpt of the letter on Twitter). When she was a youngster, Nef says that the "Barbie's Magic Hairstyler" computer game helped her learn about her own identity in a private, creative way. "I felt like through Barbie I could explore all kinds of people to be and things to do," she told Out.

Alexandra Shipp has wowed audiences in projects such as "Straight Outta Compton" and "X-Men: Apocalypse," but she is not exactly known for comedy. As Writer Barbie, however, Shipp strikes exactly the right tone and delivers a solid performance that we thoroughly enjoyed. It seems like Shipp very much enjoyed it, too, since she has raved about the experience in just about every interview. 

Even the prospect of offending people was exciting to Shipp in the lead-up to the "Barbie" release. "If we offend men, I'm going to be so excited," she told Interview. "Let's make them all uncomfortable. That would be really great. Because maybe a lot of the things that the Kens do that might make them upset are things that they actually do, too."

But it is not just the social commentary that excited Shipp about the movie. She was also quite enamored with the visual world that Greta Gerwig and the set designers created — so much so that she became emotional when she first saw it. "We got to the set, and we walked in, and we walked on the grass, and we started following that little yellow brick road. And I just started crying," she told Out. "I was like, 'Look at these two- to four-story Barbie Dreamhouses! It's a cul-de-sac. You've got everything and everyone!' And it was so massive and up to scale that the little girl in me started just crying. Because that was a dream, to actually live in a fly-*ss Barbie Dreamhouse."

If Alexandra Shipp is not known for comedy, then Kingsley Ben-Adir is really not known for comedy. In fact, casting directors Lucy Bevan and Allison Jones told Vanity Fair that they were at first concerned about how the British actor — famous for dramatic roles in films like "One Night in Miami ... " and the series "Peaky Blinders" — would handle the comedic elements of his Ken role. "Not a big comedy résumé," Jones told the magazine, before sharing that the actor won them over during the audition process: "It's always a joy when you can discover that somebody is funny." In the film, Ben-Adir's Ken is one of the main allies of Ryan Gosling's Ken, and thus plays a pivotal role in most of the group scenes central to the plot.

Like essentially all of the actors in this article, Ben-Adir deeply desired a role in "Barbie," no doubt because of Greta Gerwig's (and her partner, co-writer Noah Baumbach's) appeal and their strong script. "From the first page, I was like, 'Wow, this is really, really funny!'" Ben-Adir told Variety. "I just heard such great things about Ryan and Margot. Then me and Greta went out for some whiskey. We spoke for two or three hours. There was a really strong sense from early on like she was trying to do something a little bit different." We can't think of many things that sound cooler than a whisky tasting with a cinematic genius like Greta Gerwig.

You might recognize Emma Mackey from her starring role on the Netflix hit "Sex Education" (the fourth and final season will be released in September 2023). You might also simply feel like you know her face due to the resemblance between Mackey and Stereotypical Barbie herself, Margot Robbie. It is actually the actors' resemblance that first got Mackey consideration for the film, in which she appears as Physicist Barbie. Once she was under consideration, Mackey did everything she could to make it into the movie. "I jumped, I fought, I shouted from the rooftops in any way I could," Mackey told Games Radar about her desire to work with Greta Gerwig. "She's my absolute hero and she lived up to expectations more than I could have anticipated."

Robbie and Gerwig originally planned to reference Mackey and Robbie's similar appearances, even writing a joke into the script about it. "I've been getting told for years that I look like the girl from 'Sex Education,'" Robbie told co-star Ryan Gosling in one of Buzzfeed's classic "puppy interview" videos. "And she plays one of the Barbies in the movie, pretty much because Greta and I thought it would be funny." Things took a left turn, however, when Mackey got into costume and no longer looked like a Robbie doppelgänger. Given that Mackey's Barbie was a brunette and their resemblance was muted, Robbie and Gerwig found the joke did not land as well as anticipated, and it ended up on the cutting room floor.

We don't know if it is Greta Gerwig or Margot Robbie or the casting agents, but someone on the "Barbie" team is a major fan of "Sex Education." Emma Mackey is only one of three of the show's stars to have been cast in the "Barbie" movie, and it must have been super fun for her to have "Sex Education" co-stars Connor Swindells and Ncuti Gatwa around set. 

Like Mackey, Gatwa has raved about his experience working on the film and about Gerwig in particular, despite his admission in British Vogue that he suffered from imposter syndrome during filming. "Greta is so good, so good — and so clever. She does everything with such grace and humour, yet there is undeniable depth and layers," he told The Telegraph. "It was like a playground: she directs in the way that we used to play when we were kids — making up the rules as you go along."

Gerwig's adaptable and perhaps non-traditional methods started well before Gatwa got to set, as his audition process was anything but typical. In his interview with The Telegraph, Gatwa explained how he was not originally being considered to play one of the Kens, but a human character yet to be defined. He was soon told he made it to the final two but that the role went to someone else. A week later, Gatwa got a call saying Gerwig was requesting he self-tape an audition to play a Ken — and since there was no script available yet, he taped 11 different interpretations!

Unlike his "Sex Education" co-stars Emma Mackey and Ncuti Gatwa — who plays his former love interest on the show — Connor Swindells does not get to rock out in Barbie Land. Swindells still has plenty of absurd moments, but the vast majority of them take place in the human world, which is decidedly less fun than the pink paradise where the Barbies and Ken reside. 

Swindells' role was kept a secret prior to the film's release, which makes sense if you have seen the movie and know the role he plays in the plot (no spoilers!). But even though he plays a mortal and not a Ken, that does not mean that Swindells didn't enjoy himself on set. After all, how can you not have a good time when the main person you are acting alongside is comedic genius Will Ferrell?

In addition to "Sex Education," Swindells has appeared in a couple of films (most notably the 2020 version of "Emma") and a handful of television series including "Rogue Heroes," "Vigil," and "Dodo." Though it was filmed across the pond, "Barbie" is the British actor's first non-European, Hollywood-based project. According to him, it was also the most enjoyable job he has ever had, thanks in large part to those in control. "Margot Robbie plays Stereotypical Barbie and she is wonderful," Swindells told Entravista. "She's truly great and she makes us all feel so welcome to — as does Greta — to really play with the material. And it's just the funnest job."

We are so used to Will Ferrell headlining or co-headlining films, as he's done in "Anchorman," "Old School," "Daddy's Home," and so many more, that it was almost surprising to see him take a smaller part in "Barbie." But don't worry, because as the head of Mattel, Ferrell still gets plenty of time to be his goofy self — and a little of Ferrell goes a long way, as we have learned from previous films featuring him in smaller roles (take "Wedding Crashers" and "Superstar," for instance). 

While Ferrell's "Barbie" character has no name beyond "Mattel CEO" (though he tries to earn a rather odd nickname in one scene), the actor plays one of the few notable humans in the film and is by far the zaniest of the bunch (although he has nothing on Weird Barbie).

At the film's July premiere in London, Farrell discussed how much fun he had on the film and how he always enjoys playing "a bumbling idiot." But his most thorough interview about "Barbie" happened long before the film opened, way back in November 2022. It was then, in WSJ Magazine, that he discussed his views on what the film was setting out to accomplish and noted the mixture of "high and low art. "It's a loving homage to the brand and, at the same time, couldn't be more satirical," he said. "Just an amazing comment on male patriarchy and women in society and why Barbie's criticized and yet why every little girl still wants to play with Barbie."

Rhea Perlman is a Hollywood legend who has played many memorable characters, including her most iconic — Carla Tortelli on "Cheers," a role which earned her four Primetime Emmy Awards. She can handle anything, but it was odd to see Perlman in one of the only non-comedic roles in "Barbie" given that comedy is kind of her jam. 

She has only a few scenes as Ruth Handler, the inventor of Barbie, but Perlman played her as sweet and kind and almost saintly. "There's this shot where Ruth hands Barbie a cup of tea, and the way we lined it up is the exact way that God is touching Adam on the Sistine Chapel," Greta Gerwig told USA Today of the scene where Barbie first meets Handler. However, the movie version of the character was decidedly less complex than the real-life woman.

According to a scandalous July 2023 Vanity Fair article on Handler, the inventor was accused of falsifying three years of records so as to affect Mattel's stock. This was back in the early 1970s and then, in 1978, Handler and others were indicted for conspiracy. While she only served probation and paid fines — versus the decades in prison she could have received — the article notes that Handler and her husband, who co-founded Mattel Inc., were forced to resign from the company they built in 1975. After getting into trouble with the law, Handler went on to do some real good, creating a breast prosthetic after being inspired by her own mastectomy. 

Pop star Dua Lipa is at the top of her game when it comes to music, so it makes sense as to why she was tapped to craft a song for the "Barbie" movie. She was also asked to play Mermaid Barbie in the film, which is basically a cameo performance. She appears alongside John Cena a couple of times — enough to be cute but not so much as to have anything real to say. "I loved being a mermaid. So, it will definitely be something I will remember for the rest of my life, that experience. It was really, really fun," Lipa told Vogue at the premiere. Behind the scenes, Lipa played a much more pivotal role, co-writing and singing the highest-profile song on a soundtrack that also includes songs by Lizzo, Billie Eilish, and Sam Smith.

Lipa's song, "Dance the Night," was produced by Mark Ronson, who scored the movie and executive produced its soundtrack. Ronson and Lipa were two of four writers on the song, and it is played during the film's amazing dance sequence. "[S]eeing the song we wrote together alongside @wyattish and @carolineailin come to life on the big screen was a very surreal moment for me," she wrote in an Instagram post referencing Ronson, continuing, "the song no longer felt like it belonged to me but belonged to Barbie and her perfect/imperfect self." "Dance the Night" peaked at number 10 on the Billboard 100 and has been on the chart for 10 weeks as of August 12, 2023.

Dame Helen Mirren seems like as good a choice as you can get when it comes to a narrator, and in her role as such for the "Barbie" movie, she used that trademark quick wit of hers to fill the screen with only her voice. She had plenty of good jokes, delivered with a tone that was somehow both sardonic and discerning. Mirren told Vanity Fair that she formed a bond with Greta Gerwig when they both acted in 2011's "Arthur," and that she'd since also grown an admiration for her filmmaking. "She's an amazing visionary and an extraordinary talent," Mirren said.

Mirren has some good lines in the film — especially one that's a playful jab at Margot Robbie herself — but Gerwig recalls being especially saddened when one specific line was cut. "There was a page-one F-bomb that ... sort of set the tone for the whole thing. What the line was, it was actually Helen Mirren saying to Marie Curie, 'Pipe the f**k down, Marie Curie!'" Gerwig explained in a podcast with CinemaBlend's RealBlend podcast. "That was like my favorite [line] ... But we knew we only got one F-bomb." The expletive ended up going into one of Issa Rae's lines instead. Let's pray there's a "Barbie" sequel and Mirren gets to launch a proper F-bomb on screen, though, because we just know she can land it.