Barbie is now in theaters, and if its staggering box office performance is any indication, audiences from all demographics have been enjoying Greta Gerwig's funny, heartfelt, and surprisingly subversive movie.
But would an earlier incarnation of the project starring Amy Schumer been as successful?
Before Margot Robbie signed on to play the lead role, Schumer (Trainwreck, Life and Beth) was all set to star as the iconic fashion doll before parting ways with the project.
Schumer recently revealed the real reason she decided to drop out of the film.
“I can’t wait to see the [new] movie. I think it looks awesome. I think we said it was scheduling conflicts. But it really was just like, creative differences. But there’s a new team behind it and it looks like it’s very feminist and cool, so I will be seeing this movie."
Apparently, Schumer's take on Barbie was going to be an "ambitious inventor," but when the studio wanted her breakthrough invention to be a Jell-O high heel, the actress realized they were going to take the movie in a direction she wanted no part of.
Now, Schumer has revealed that she's been to see the film (and Oppenheimer), and shared her verdict via Instagram.
"Really enjoyed Barbie and Oppenheimer, but I think I should have played Emily Blunt's role. Do better Hollywood," she joked.
In related news, Gerwig has revealed that the studio suggested cutting one particular scene, but she wouldn't budge.
Shortly after Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) arrive in the "real world," Babs sits down on a bench next to an older lady, and is transfixed (no one grows old in Barbieland). After staring for a few seconds, she tells the woman that she's "so beautiful," to which she replies with a smile, "I know it."
It's a lovely moment, but doesn't really have much to do with the main story, and the studio felt that removing it altogether would help the narrative flow.
“I love that scene so much,” Gerwig told Rolling Stone. “And the older woman on the bench is the costume designer Ann Roth. She’s a legend. It’s a cul-de-sac of a moment, in a way — it doesn’t lead anywhere. And in early cuts, looking at the movie, it was suggested, ‘Well, you could cut it. And actually, the story would move on just the same.’ And I said, ‘If I cut the scene, I don’t know what this movie is about.'”
From Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig (Little Women, Lady Bird) comes Barbie, which also stars America Ferrera (End of Watch, the How to Train Your Dragon films), Kate McKinnon (Bombshell, Yesterday), Issa Rae (The Photograph, Insecure), Rhea Perlman (I’ll See You in My Dreams, Matilda), and Will Ferrell (the Anchorman films, Talladega Nights), and more.
Gerwig directs from a screenplay she penned alongside Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story, The Squid and the Whale), based on the iconic fashion dolls by Mattel.
The film’s producers are Oscar nominee David Heyman (Marriage Story, Gravity), Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Robbie Brenner, with Gerwig, Baumbach, Ynon Kreiz, Richard Dickson, Michael Sharp, Josey McNamara, Courtenay Valenti, Toby Emmerich and Cate Adams serving as executive producers.