Trivia / Barbie (2023)

• Acting for Two: All of the Mermaid Barbies are played by Dua Lipa.
• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • Michael Cera was reportedly responsible for suggesting that the caution sign seen when the Kens are building the wall around Kendom, which originally read "Men Working", be changed to "Ken Working."
  • Rival Ken can backflip because Simu Liu did a demonstration one day on the set and Greta Gerwig noticed Ryan Gosling was jealous. She decided on the spot to incorporate this ability in the rivalry between their characters.
  • The song "I'm Just Ken" was written by producer Mark Ronson as a joke and never intended to be in the film, but Ryan Gosling convinced Greta Gerwig to include it. This required a major rewrite for the scene in which it happens.
  • Margot Robbie wanted a slide to take her from bed to the pool and for a Mermaid Barbie to be inside. By coincidence Dua Lipa also wanted to play a Mermaid Barbie. Then Robbie offered John Cena the part of Kenmaid after randomly meeting him in a restaurant. Doubles as Executive Meddling since Robbie was also a producer.
• All-Star Cast:
  • Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are the leads, with a supporting cast filled out with Issa Rae, Alexandra Shipp, Emma Mackey, Dua Lipa, Kate McKinnon, Hari Nef, Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Scott Evans, Rob Brydon, Will Ferrell, Helen Mirren, Emerald Fennell, Michael Cera, Connor Swindells, America Ferrera, Rhea Perlman, AND John Cena.
  • This also applies to the film's soundtrack, which features tracks by Charli XCX, cast members Dua Lipa and Ryan Gosling, Haim, Khalid, Lizzo, PinkPantheress, Tame Impala, The Kid LAROI, Sam Smith, and the duo of Ice Spice and Nicki Minaj, who cover/remix "Barbie Girl" by Aqua.
  • The Japanese dub is not behind on this, as it features many well-known veteran Anime voice actors, including celebrities like Mitsuki Takahata (Stereotypical Barbie), Shunsuke Takeuchi (Beach Ken), Maaya Sakamoto (Physicist Barbie), Romi Park (Weird Barbie), Ayumi Tsunematsu (Judge Barbie), Mitsuki Saiga (President Barbie), Miyuki Sawashiro (Writer Barbie), Jun'ichi Suwabe (Basketball Ken), Ryōtarō Okiayu (Stereotypical Ken), Daisuke Ono (Rival Ken), KENN (Tourist Ken) Hiro Shimono (Allan), Saori Hayami (Sasha), Naoya Uchida (The Mattel CEO), Takako Honda (Gloria) and Yoshiko Sakakibara as the narrator.
• Approval of God:
  • The real Barbie herself, Barbara Handler, gave her kudos to Margot Robbie's portrayal of the character she shares her name with.
  • Rob Thomas expressed approval of the way the film utilized the Matchbox Twenty song "Push", while also expressing admiration for all of Greta Gerwig's work.
  • Zack Snyder thought that the movie was great, and enjoyed the joke about his cut of Justice League.
  • America Ferrera is aware that a lot of fans online ship Barbie and Gloria, and, while saying she doesn't see it that way, has been very supportive of it.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: John Cena's appearance in the movie as Kenmaid was the result of Cena really wanting to be a part of the film and its All-Star Cast. He offered to take whatever opportunity could be made available for him, and when he was asked if he wanted to be a merman, he instantly accepted the role.
• Banned in China:
  • The film was preemptively banned in Vietnam due to one shot featuring a crudely-drawn world map with a dashed line radiating from a large country that was interpreted as the Nine-Dash Line, a marking used by China to claim ownership of disputed territories in the South China Sea. That said, filmmakers strenuously denied the claims that it was intended in the perceived manner. Philippine officials also called for the film to be banned in the country for the same reason as Vietnam, but fears of a ban were soon allayed when the Movie and Television Rating and Classification board (MTRCB) cleared the film for exhibition as they determined that the dashed lines in question were merely taken out of context; they did however asked the distributors to blur out the aforementioned lines to prevent any further misinterpretation.
  • Kuwait and Algeria banned the movie as they accused it of promoting homosexuality and other LGBT-related matters.^note This may largely be due to the inclusion of queer actors in the cast. It was due to be banned in Lebanon on similar grounds, but was later given the green light when the country's Censorship Bureau found no reason to block its release, though it was moved to August 31.
• Billing Displacement: There was a fair amount of publicity over Dua Lipa having a role in the movie beyond contributing a song to the soundtrack - She gets billing in the opening credits and her own poster, though Mermaid Barbie ended up being a very minor character that only has five lines, three of which are greeting Barbie.
• The Cast Show Off:
  • Michael Cera has trained in martial arts ever since he starred in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and gets to show off his skills when Allan fights a group of Kens so Gloria and Sasha can return to the real world.
  • During production, Simu Liu informed Greta Gerwig that he could do a backflip, which she immediately included in the script. Ryan Gosling jokingly labeled Liu the cast show-off, and their playful behind-the-screens rivalry informed the relationship between their characters.
  • Ken gets two songs, letting Ryan Gosling show off his singing chops.
• Casting Gag: The only Barbie/Ken duo from the start who are shown to have a genuine bond by the end are Physicist Barbie and Tourist Ken, who are played by Sex Education co-stars Emma Mackey and Ncuti Gatwa.
• Celebrity Voice Actor:
  • In the Japanese dub, Stereotypical Barbie is voiced by actress and singer Mitsuki Takahata, who some Anime fans can recognize her as Kokone Morikawa in Napping Princess and Narumi Momose in the live-action adaptation of Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku. Likewise, Mermaid Barbie is voiced by Swedish-Japanese comedian and actress LiLiCo, better known for being the current Japanese dub voice of Eric Cartman.
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, the narrator of the Depression Barbie parody commercial is voiced by the Mexican singer Habana Zoé.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: Several sources, including ''The Daily Mail'', erroneously identify the old lady Barbie meets on a bench as Barbie namesake and Ruth Handler's daughter Barbara Handler; the old lady in question is actually legendary costume designer Ann Roth (The English Patient, The Birdcage).
• Creator Couple: Two of them: Greta Gerwig co-wrote the script with her partner Noah Baumbach, marking the latest of their many collaborations, while Margot Robbie produced the film with her husband Tom Ackerley via the production company they both own.
• Creator's Oddball:
  • Would you ever imagine that Greta Gerwig, the director of auteurist dramas like Lady Bird and Little Women, would follow them up with a highly tongue-in-cheek and comedic blockbuster film based on Barbie?
  • This trope may be even stranger for Noah Baumbach, co-writer of the film, who usually makes more deadpan comedy-drama films about dysfunctional families.
• Defictionalization: After the film's success, Mattel wasted no time getting a real Weird Barbie figure out onto the market. It quickly sold out and Weird Barbie dolls now go for triple-figure sums on eBay.
• DVD Commentary: With co-writer and director Greta Gerwig. Unfortunately, it's only included in the digital release content on iTunes, Prime Video and Max.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Ryan Gosling bleached his hair, had an orange tan, and lost ten kilos in record time to play Ken. Thank God nobody else was considered for the role.
• Executive Meddling: Heavily lampshaded. Mattel is very protective of the Barbie property and the company's specifications for the production are occasionally brought up in the script itself.
  • When one of the Mattel execs worries during the beach battle that the Kens might have real weapons, the CEO reassures him with a Blunt "No". This reflects Mattel's policy of never including any weapon accessories in the Barbie line, something the company set as a condition for the film.
  • When asked about Ken being loose in the real world, the CEO responds that "Ken isn't something we're worried about." This line is a direct quote from Mattel during production: actor Ryan Gosling wanted to privately create some Ken-related merch for the crew but had to obtain permission from Mattel. Mattel replied that he was not allowed to make Barbie merch, but that Ken merch was fine, complete with the above quote. This would bite them in the ass after the film released as there was a huge surge in demand for Ken merchandise, leading to Mattel quickly pushing out the "I am Kenough" hoodie and Ken fanny pack.
• Fake American:
  • Australian Margot Robbie is playing the all-American doll Barbie.
  • Canadians Ryan Gosling and Simu Liu are playing the also American doll Ken.
    • Their fellow Canadian Michael Cera plays the American doll Allan.
  • English Emma Mackey, Emerald Fennell, Ritu Arya and Dua Lipa, Scottish Sharon Rooney, and Irish Nicola Coughlan all adopt American accents for their Barbies, as do Scottish Ncuti Gatwa, British Kingsley Ben-Adir, and English and Welsh Tom Stourton and Rob Brydon as Kens. Fellow Brits Connor Swindells, Jamie Demetriou and Asim Chaudry all portray American Mattel employees (respectively, Aaron Dinkins, the Mattel CFO, and the warehouse manager), as does Ray Fearon as Dan the FBI agent.
• Hypothetical Casting: When asked by Ben Mankiewicz which star from The Golden Age of Hollywood she would cast as Barbie, Greta Gerwig responded Carole Lombard.
• Method Acting: An article from Vogue revealed that Robbie helped Gosling figure out the character of Ken by giving him pink presents (tied with pink bows and addressed from Barbie to Ken, naturally) every day of filming, all of them containing beach-related items as a nod to Gosling's Ken's job essentially just being "beach".
• The Other Darrin:
  • In the Japanese dub, Mitsuki Takahata voices Stereotypical Barbie, rather than her current official voice actress in animated adaptations, Ami Koshimizu. In the same way, Shunsuke Takeuchi voices Beach Ken, rather than Nobunaga Shimazaki, his official voice actor.
  • The same goes in the Latin American Spanish dub, Stereotypical Barbie is voiced by Mireya Mendoza, rather than Nycolle Gonzalez, who had voiced her since Barbie Vlog. Likewise, Beach Ken is voiced by José Antonio Macías, rather than either Mexico-born Enzo Fortuny or Venezuela-based Luis Carreño, their regular voice actors in animated productions.
• Playing Against Type:
  • While this is not his first time in a comedy, Ryan Gosling, known for playing serious and confident men in dramas, stars in a fantasy satirical comedy based on the camp children's doll franchise Barbie... as Barbie's incompetent and awkward (wannabe) trophy boyfriend Ken.
  • Kingsley Ben-Adir usually stars in dramas, and this movie came out at the tail end of Secret Invasion (2023) where he played the Big Bad, a somber terrorist who kills hundreds of people. Going straight from that to a campy comedy is...jarring to say the least.
  • Rhea Perlman is best known as Carla Tortelli from Cheers, an acid-tongued, generally bitter waitress (though one with an occasional soft side). Here, she's the kindly, good-hearted ghost of Ruth Handler, Barbie's creator. Though she does make a few jabs at her past financial misdeeds.
  • In the Japanese dub, Mitsuki Saiga (President Barbie) is normally well-known for voicing either tomboys, male roles or tough-talking women. Voicing a Barbie of all things, and a very nice and girly one to boot is a quite departure of such roles. Likewise, and in a very meta-example, Saori Hayami's role as Sasha is pretty much this, considering many of her roles are into voicing girls doing the same kind of stuff her character accuse Barbie against, like Manaka Takane, Kaede Takagaki or Kotoha Hanami/Cure Felice.
• Produced by Cast Member: The movie was co-produced by Margot Robbie's production company LuckyChap.
• Production Posse:
  • The film marks Margot Robbie and Emerald Fennell's second collaboration after Robbie produced Fennell's Promising Young Woman. Robbie also worked with producer David Heyman on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto on The Wolf of Wall Street.
  • Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach previously worked with Heyman on the Baumbach-directed, Gerwig-starring White Noise (2022).
• Reality Subtext:
  • Greta Gerwig herself has acknowledged how Barbie choosing to leave Barbie World (which is "perfect" and glamorous, but ultimately hollow) for the real world (which is flawed and unglamorous, but where she finds true meaning and autonomy) mirrors her own decision to focus on directing over acting. Two lines in particular stand out:
    Barbie: I want to be part of the people that make meaning, not the thing that's made. I want to be the one imagining, not the idea itself.
  • After reading the moments in script where Gloria's husband tries to learn Spanish, Ferrera noted to Gerwig that her real husband, Ryan Piers Williams, had been trying to learn Spanish for years, inspiring Gerwig to cast him in the role. During filming, Gerwig saw Ferrera helping Williams with pronunciation and told them to include it in their final scene.
• Real-Life Relative: Gloria's husband is played by Ryan Piers Williams, America Ferrera's real-life husband.
• Saved from Development Hell: There were various ideas for a live-action Barbie movie dating back to The '80s, when The Cannon Group announced plans to make one ("The leggy Mattel doll shows her owner that all of her dreams can come true.”), but Masters of the Universe flopping led them to drop it. The concept was resurrected in 2009, with rights going from Universal to Sony Pictures before Mattel launched their own film production wing, which secured a deal with Warner Bros.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: The litigious history between Mattel and MCA Records over Aqua's hit song "Barbie Girl" is why the original version isn't used in the film. A new version performed by Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice in collaboration with Aqua appears instead.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: Margot Robbie met John Cena in a London restaurant by chance and asked him to play Kenmaid after learning that they were shooting different films in the same studio.
• What Could Have Been:
  • At different points during development, Amy Schumer and Anne Hathaway were going to play Barbie, with Gal Gadot almost getting the role before Margot Robbie came in.
  • Additionally, Patty Jenkins and Diablo Cody were attached to direct and write, respectively.
  • Alexandre Desplat was originally announced as the film's composer, re-uniting him with Greta Gerwig, but he was forced to drop out of the project in May 2023 due to scheduling conflicts, with musicians Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt taking over scoring duties instead.
  • Margot Robbie only signed on for the movie after being reassured that she wouldn't have to play all the Barbies.
  • Greta Gerwig wanted her frequent collaborators Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet to appear in cameo roles, but the scheduling didn't work out.
  • Ben Platt, Bowen Yang, and Dan Levy turned down Ken roles.
  • Jonathan Groff turned down the role of Allan.
  • Gerwig originally included a cameo by Ridley Scott in the script, with Writer Barbie later referencing Blade Runner and its director's cut after her brainwashing was reversed; the cameo was ultimately cut and the film reference was changed to Zack Snyder's Justice League. Another cut reference was to Remington Steele, made by Ruth in reference to her being the brains of Mattel while her husband was the obstensible head.
  • Making-of featurettes talked about how they originally toyed around (pardon the pun) with the idea of having the characters appear much more doll-like, with painted-on joints and faces slighty-off color to their bodies akin to older dolls which struggled to get the colors to match on two different types of plastic, but eventually dismissed it as a fun idea but not something you want to actually watch for very long.
  • A cut scene involved Olivia Colman trying to steal the narration from Helen Mirren.
• You Sound Familiar:
  • A few rather odd examples happen in the Japanese dub: Maaya Sakamoto, who voiced Barbie in many animated films, voices Physicist Barbie, overlapping this with Remake Cameo, since her Barbie is not the main protagonist of this film. Likewise, Romi Park (Weird Barbie) previously worked in the dub of Barbie of Swan Lake as Lila, the unicorn who helps the Barbie of that movie, just like she does in this film as well.
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, José Gilberto Vilchis (Stereotypical Ken) previously voiced another Ken in the dub of the Toy Story Toons short Hawaiian Vacation.

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