A long-standing rumor about Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie’s upcoming “Barbie” movie has been confirmed by a handful of new character posters: Gerwig and Ryan Gosling are far from the only Barbie and Ken dolls in the movie. Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Ncuti Gatwa and Scott Evans are playing variation on Ken, while the likes of Dua Lipa, Emma Mackey, Alexandra Shipp, Kate McKinnon, Hari Nef and more are playing variations of Barbie.
A running joke in the “Barbie” character posters is that each Barbie actor is playing a version of Barbie that has a unique profession (Issa Rae’s Barbie is president, Dupa Lip’a Barbie is a mermaid, Nicola Coughlan’s Barbie is a diplomat), while all of the Ken actors are simply just playing Ken. The character posters also provide a first look at Helen Mirren as the narrator, Will Ferrell as a Mattel CEO and Michael Cera as Allan.
While the entire cast has now been unveiled, the “Barbie” plot is still under wraps. The film is believed to follow Robbie and Gosling’s characters as they stumble into the real world. The duo went viral last year for filming “Barbie” scenes around Venice beach.
“I can’t tell you how mortified we were, by the way,” Robbie told Jimmy Fallon about the viral attention her “Barbie” photos received on social media. “We look like we’re like laughing and having fun, but we’re dying on the inside. Dying. I was like, this is the most humiliating moment of my life.”
When asked if she ever thought the “Barbie” set photos would dominate internet buzz the way they did, Robbie responded, “No! I mean, I knew that we had some exteriors to shoot in L.A. I knew once you were doing exteriors, you’re gonna get papped. There’s probably going to be a little crowd of people who are going to take notice because, you know, we stand out a little bit in those outfits. So I knew there was going to be a little bit of attention, and probably some photos would get out there, but not like it did.”
“Barbie” opens in theaters nationwide July 21 from Warner Bros.