The Barbie cast got creative on set to make the production even more enjoyable.
Simu Liu says Margot Robbie hosted a sleepover for her fellow Barbie actresses.
“Margot was so great. She had a sleepover with the Barbies before photography started, and the Kens were allowed to either visit briefly or to phone in and say hi,” he says.
“So we made sure to show our support but not be overbearing with our presence. And all the Barbies and Kens got in a group chat,” adds Liu, 34.
That group chat didn’t include Michael Cera though, but he was fine with the omission.
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“I don’t have an iPhone myself. … I have a flip phone,” says Cera, 35. “But I still think I wouldn’t belong on [the group chat] anyway, because [my character] Allan is sort of in his own little world. Greta’s gift for me when I arrived was a picture disc of NSYNC’s No Strings Attached, which felt like somehow a real guiding light in the backstory of this character.”
Issa Rae, who plays President Barbie in the movie, missed out on the sleepover, unfortunately.
“I got there late. I was so sad [to miss the sleepover],” says Rae, 38. “But there were so many bonding activities. Simu’s birthday happened there. And Margot and Tom [Ackerley, Robbie’s husband and co-producer] would have movie nights.”
Ryan Gosling, the Ken to Robbie’s Barbie, says Robbie, 33, also instituted mandatory pink dress codes once a week, with a sweet charitable upside.
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“Margot had this pink day once a week, where everyone had to wear something pink. And if you didn’t, you were fined,” says Gosling, 42. “She would go around collecting the fines, and she would donate it to a charity.”
“What was really special was just how excited the male crew members were. At the end of the film, they all got together and, with their own money, made pink crew shirts with rainbow fringe,” Gosling adds.
“It was this opportunity for them to show their respect and admiration for what Margot and [director] Greta [Gerwig] were creating,” he continues. “It was almost like that scene at the end of Dead Poets Society, where they all get on their desk and say, ‘O captain! My captain!’ “
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There were plenty of laughs while working together too.
“Ryan is the most comedically gifted actor I have ever worked with. He really is,” says Robbie of Gosling. “He’s known for his dramatic acting, and rightly so. But he is unbelievably gifted with comedy, and I ruined most of his takes because I was laughing through all of it.”
Barbie is in theaters July 21.