Related: Warner Bros.The Barbie movie comes out this November, and if all of the Hollywood buzz is to be believed, it is going to be spectacular. This is likely due in no small part to all the intensive prep that director Greta Gerwig had her Barbies do for the film.
Yes, that’s BarbieS, plural – though it hasn’t been discussed much yet, and they haven’t appeared in any trailers, there are, in fact, other Barbies in this film. These actresses include Hari Nef, Emma Mackey, Dua Lipa, Sharon Rooney, Ana Cruz Kayne, Alexandra Shipp, Kate McKinnon, and Issa Rae, who has been singled out as “President Barbie.”
Related: Greta Gerwig Compares Barbie and Ken to Adam and Eve Creation Myth
When they were casting, Greta Gerwig and producer and star Margot Robbie looked for a specific “Barbie energy” that Robbie said could be best exemplified by Gal Gadot:
“Gal Gadot is Barbie energy. Because Gal Gadot is so impossibly beautiful, but you don’t hate her for being that beautiful, because she’s so genuinely sincere, and she’s so enthusiastically kind, that it’s almost dorky. It’s like right before being a dork.”
Of course, just having “Barbie energy” alone isn’t enough to play a Barbie when you’re going to be surrounded by other Barbies – Gerwig made sure they went through a prep process to really gel together and learn what it is to exist in BarbieLand together.
How Did Greta Gerwig Prepare Her Barbies to Be Barbie?
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One thing that surely created a bond with the whole cast and crew was Gerwig’s mandatory “Movie Church.” Each week, production company LuckyChap held weekly screenings at the Electric Cinema in Notting Hill, of the movies that they were using as references for Barbie.
These screenings consisted in large part of old technicolor musicals filmed on soundstages, like The Red Shoes and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Gerwig explained her reasoning for this:
“They have such a high level of what we came to call authentic artificiality. You have a painted sky in a soundstage. Which is an illusion, but it’s also really there. The painted backdrop is really there. The tangibility of the artifice is something that we kept going back to.”
That soundstage feeling is, more or less, the feeling that Gerwig and Robbie wished to convey in BarbieLand – just like the houses they make for Barbie dolls, BarbieLand is a set with warped, slightly incorrect proportions, where everything feels simultaneously beautiful, and not quite Real.
Another, even more fun thing Greta Gerwig did was throw a slumber party exclusively for her Barbies. The Kens were invited to attend, but not to sleep over – however, when Ryan Gosling couldn’t make it due to scheduling conflicts, he sent someone else in his stead – and it sounds like one of the funniest pranks he could have done.
Ryan Gosling Pranked The Barbies With a Bagpiper
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When Gosling couldn’t attend the Barbies-only sleepover, he sent an older Scottish man in his stead. This man not only played the bagpipes and wore a kilt, but also delivered them the speech from Braveheart, unprompted.
Imagine, if you will, a sleepover full of Barbies in pink pajamas. They’re giggling and having a good time, then all of a sudden the doorbell rings. They all get up, curious, and go to the door, and when they answer it, a man in a kilt delivers this speech:
I am William Wallace, and I see a whole army of my countrymen, here, in defiance of Tyranny. You’ve come to fight as free men, and free men you are. What will you do without freedom? Will you fight? Aye.
Fight and you may die. Run, and you’ll live…at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days, from this day to that, for one chance – just one chance – to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!
…and then he starts playing the bagpipes.
It makes absolutely no sense, which is why it’s the best prank Ryan Gosling could have come up with.
We’ll see how all of this prepping and pranking pays off soon – Barbie will strut into theaters on July 21.
What do you think of Ryan Gosling’s prank? What other movies are you hoping Barbie draws from? Let us know in the comments below.