Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Ryan Gosling as Ken in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Barbie,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.
CNN –
Ryan Gosling may or may not be your ideal Ken in the new Barbie movie, but the film’s casting director has revealed who else would have landed the role.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Allison Jones, who co-cast the hit film with Lucy Bevan, spoke about who else might have joined Barbie in her dream home.
As with the line of dolls on which the film is based, there are several Barbies and Kens portrayed by a diverse cast of actors.
But not everyone who wanted to participate could participate.
According to Jones, the Covid restrictions at the time meant he had to spend three months in London, where much of the film was being shot. And that meant Bowen Yang, Dan Levy and Ben Platt were no longer eligible to play Ken.
“They were, I’m not kidding, really disappointed they couldn’t make it,” she said.
CJ Rivera/Invision/AP; Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images; Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Ben Platt, Bowen Yang and Dan Levy.
And they weren’t the only ones interested in the role.
“Simu Liu was dying to be a Ken, bless him,” Jones said of the actor eventually cast as one of the Kens.
She also mentioned an actor who had to turn down the role of Ken’s friend Allan, she said.
“Dear, dear Jonathan Groff said, ‘I can’t believe I’m writing this, but I can’t Allan,'” the casting director told the publication.
That role went to Michael Cera instead.
Several aspiring Barbie and Kens sent in audition videos, and according to Bevan, director Greta Gerwig was keen to speak to potential actors before even sending them the script to read.
“She really wanted to get to know them as people,” Bevan said. “That was very important to her. With key roles like Barbie and Ken, talking to them gave her a very good idea of what an actor was like.”
Margot Robbie nabbed the lead role of Barbie, although there are several other Barbies in the film played by a diverse cast of actresses including Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae and Dua Lipa.