What we know so far: Margot Robbie is the star, but there are multiple Barbies (and Kens). Will Ferrell appears to be playing a (possibly villainous) toy company CEO. The script, co-written by Gerwig and her partner Noah Baumbach, is the “best” Simu Liu’s team ever received, and there is a dance number (although the movie is not a musical).
For Vogue, Gerwig pulled back the curtain ever-so-slightly further–this time regarding the audition of Hari Nef, one of the assumed Barbies. “I saw Hari’s audition tape for Barbie and just flipped out,” Gerwig says. “I ran into the producer’s office with a computer and pressed play and said, ‘That is it. That is our movie.’ She had a joyfulness and playfulness and twinkling intelligent humor, which was exactly the tone. Knowing but not snarky, buoyant but not vapid.”
Does that clear things up regarding what Barbie will be like? Not entirely, but these are the kind of teasing tidbits of information that will continue to whet the audience’s appetite for the next year. The Barbie hype train has barely left the station, people. We’ve got a ways to go before we reach our destination!
On a sweeter note, Nef herself professes a personal connection to the film, having grown up a queer Barbie collector: “Barbies were provided for me willingly by a mother who understood me. But I still knew when we were at Toys ‘R’ Us that I was doing something a little odd.” Given the diverse cast, it’s clear that another tenet of Gerwig’s film is that everyone is welcome in Barbie’s Dream House.
