Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie is a bonafide sensation, breaking records for Warner Bros. previously set by The Dark Knight. The acclaimed new dramedy is supported by killer performances by the Barbie cast, especially Ryan Gosling and actress/producer Margot Robbie. It turns out that Barbie nearly made Gosling Robbie and other characters look plastic, and I’m so happy they axed that idea. Let’s break it down.
Most of the cast of Barbie are iconic Mattel dolls like Barbie, Ken, or Michael Cera’s Allan. While they wear over the top costumes and act silly, they still very much look human. But it turns out that Geta Gerwig and company toyed (pun intended) with the idea of making the doll characters actually look plastic. Makeup artist Ivana Primorac recently spoke to E! News about this scrapped idea, saying:
We thought, ‘Should they have plastic seams? Should they have plastic skin, plastic hair?’ We didn’t like all of those things in the end because Barbies are beautiful in every child’s mind. So, once we created that fake image it wasn’t beautiful.
Talk about a bold choice. While it was a creative idea to make the dolls of Barbie look fake (including plastic hair), they probably made the right choice by passing on this concept. Who knows how audiences would have responded, or if Barbiecore would have ended up becoming such a trend if the actors ended up looking something other than human.
Part of what made Barbie’s fish out of water gags funny is that Barbie and Ken looked “normal”, but behaved bizarrely when in the real world. If they ended up having plastic seams and hair, this could have lessened those comedic beats. And besides, who doesn’t want to see Ryan Gosling looking his best with Kenergy?
Later in that same interview, Ivana Primorac further spoke about her job as a make up artist on the set of Barbie. Hair and make-up were a big part of making Barbieland come to life, so the work had to be very specific. As she put it,
What’s most beautiful, is each person being the best they can be. To make them believable, relatable and into dolls, every single Ken and Barbie had to be the best version of themselves. Everyone had to have the best skin that suits them, everyone had to have the hair color that suits them.
And beautiful they did indeed look, and without any over the top plastic effects. And in the end Barbie was so popular that the movie’s characters became dolls that fans could purchase. That includes Kate McKinnon’s Weird Barbie and Ryan Gosling’s faux fur Ken.
Barbie is still in theaters now. Be sure to check out the 2023 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.
