TV & Movies
Ben Affleck & Olivia Colman Were Supposed To Star In Barbie
The Oscar winners were cut from the final film.
Details of Ben Affleck and Olivia Colman’s scrapped Barbie roles have been revealed.
Helen Mirren, who took on the role of narrator in the film, recently informed Variety that Colman was set to star opposite her as Barbie’s second narrator.
“It was a very funny scene with Olivia Colman sort of playing drunk and us clashing about who is the real grande dame of British actresses,” she told the outlet. “She comes in and tries to take over the role of the Narrator and I had to fight her off.”
Colman’s cameo ultimately wound up on the cutting room floor, as did another Oscar-winning actor’s.
On the Feb. 15 episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, actor Michael Cera, who played Alan, revealed that Ben Affleck was also supposed to make an appearance.
Referring to his fight scene with the construction Kens in the movie, Cera disclosed that he “wasn't even supposed to fight in the movie,” adding, “It was supposed to be Ben Affleck. Am I allowed to say that?”
While “Ben wanted to do it,” according to Cera, he dropped out at the last minute due to prior commitments on the 2023 sports drama Air.
Other Canceled Cameos
Barbie’s casting director, Allison Jones, previously told Vanity Fair that Ben Platt, Bowen Yang, and Dan Levy were lined up to play some of the film’s many Kens, but scheduling conflicts got in the way.
Fellow Travelers star Matt Bomer also auditioned remotely for Barbie, but ultimately walked away from the project. “I recorded it on my own, played a bunch of different Kens,” he told Vanity Fair. “I dressed differently for all of them.”
And last summer, the film’s director, Greta Gerwig, revealed to Cinemablend that she had penned a “specialty cameo” for Ladybird and Little Women stars Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet, but their busy schedules wouldn’t allow it.
