Which actresses have already been considered to play Barbie?

“Barbie” debuted in theaters on July 20th last year, so it’s almost impossible not to connect the image of the Mattel doll with its main performer in the live-action film that goes on display on July 20th: Margot Robbie.

But, did you know that other actresses were considered to bring the character to life? The trajectory for Robbie appeared using the doll’s pink outfits was long and involved more than ten years of negotiations, where big Hollywood names were cast in the film’s main role before the official cast was actually defined.

Who were the actresses considered to play Barbie?

As analyzed by the Observatório do Cinema portal, the toy factory founded by Harold Matson and the couple Ruth It is Elliot Handler — Mattel — has been trying to make a film where Barbie can be seen in the flesh since 2009, since that same year, a contract with Universal Pictures was established, but the partnership ended up not generating any progress towards realizing the dream feature film.

Five years later, Sony entered the game and the first script took shape in the hands of Hillary Winston. In this version, the actress and comedian Amy Schumer was cast to bring the doll to life in 2016, but the comedian left the project in 2017 citing “scheduling conflicts”.

However, in 2022, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter (via CanalTech), Schumer said that she gave up the role due to the tone that the Sony team would have given to the script, stating that the studio “didn’t want to make the film the way I wanted”, as she suggested that Barbie was a great inventor, while the production would have written that the creation should be a jelly shoe.

New details emerged in July this year, when Variety reported that, in participation in the program Watch What Happens Live, Schumer reaffirmed the reason for his departure from the cast and praised the new producers, directors and screenwriters cast.

At the time, we said the departure was due to scheduling issues, but in reality, it was due to creative differences,” Schumer told Watch What Happens Live [via Variety]. “But now there’s a new team behind the movie, and it looks really cool and feminist, so I’m going to watch it.”

After Schumeranother great talent was announced to play Barbie in theaters: Anne Hathaway. The actress continued to be mentioned by the media as the film’s main protagonist until her contract with Sony came to an end after the film suffered several delays and controversies.

Thus, Warner Bros emerges to produce the live-action, revealing that Margot Robbie the doll would live. But, as revealed by the actress in an interview with Time magazine, she did not accept the role straight away, as she would have imposed a condition to have her image linked to the title.

This is because she wanted there to be diversity in the plot and cast, as trying to bring the inspiration that Barbie brings to the film, she believes that different Barbie models could convey this message to more people and in different ways.

With names like Ryan Gosling, Hari Nef, Emma Mackey, Nicola Coughlan, Dua Lipa, Simiu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa It is Scott Evans, Emerald Fennell, America Ferrera, Will Ferrell, Jamie Demtriou, Ariana Glenblatt, Connor Swindells It is Helen Mirren in the cast, the request for Robbie was attended to.

“Barbie” is directed by Greta Gerwingwho also wrote the script alongside Noah Baumbach.