Greta Gerwig revealed in an interview that she had to defend the “I’m Just Ken” scene in “Barbie”
The performance of “Just Ken” (I’m Just Ken, in the original) in “Barbie” could have been discarded from the live-action film if Greta Gerwig had not fought for the scene to be included in the live-action, as the filmmaker revealed during the panel at the BFI film festival (via Jovem Nerd).
The idea for the musical number presented by Ryan Goslingthe puppet’s performer, was described in the script as “a dream ballet”, which made the executives think about cutting the scene as they did not fully understand the idea of Gerwig.
The script just said ‘and then everything becomes a dream ballet and they resolve themselves through dance’. There was a big meeting where it was like ‘do you need this?’ and I was like ‘everything in me needs this’. And they said ‘what does that mean? What is a dream ballet?’. And I said ‘where do I start?’.”
In this way, the director states that she explained the scene by alluding to one of Hollywood’s most classic musicals: “Singing in the Rain” (1952).
If people can understand that in Singing in the Rain, I think we’ll be fine. I think people will understand, and that was the big reference. Even though everything felt right and I was happy with everything we were doing, I also had a bit of a ‘oh no, this could get horrible, but now I’m committed’ feeling.”
As a result, Ken’s scene became one of the most iconic of “Barbie”, while the song became a hit, even entering Billboard’s Hot 100, the list that shows the most played songs on the world charts.
Source: Recreio
