Rob Thomas approves of this "Barbie" world.
However, the Matchbox Twenty frontman was originally hesitant to sign off on "Barbie" using the band's 1996 hit song "Push," a favorite of director Greta Gerwig.
"I want to preface this by saying that I thought it was hilarious," the musician told USA Today in an interview published July 23. "But in 'Bring It On,' Kirsten Dunst's character has this douchey boyfriend. And there's a scene where he was in his dorm room with a Matchbox Twenty poster in the background. There was a whole period during the ‘90s where the more successful we got, the bigger target we were. We were an easy takedown."
So when he got the call asking if Ryan Gosling's Ken could sing the song by the fireside, he didn't exactly think it was a fantastic idea.
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"I did this thinking I'd be the butt of the joke," he shared, "and I was fine with that. I'm pretty thick-skinned."
Of course, for Thomas — who said he was later told viewers "come out of it loving Ken and loving ‘Push'" — there was a bit of a selfish perk to handing over the song.
"Greta Gerwig has been one of my crushes forever, to the point where I was on a plane one time and I called my wife [Marisol Maldonado], like, ‘Baby, Greta Gerwig just came on the plane, oh my god,'" the 51-year-old gushed. "So just the fact that it didn't diminish my crush of Greta, that's even better."
Needless to say, he's excited for Gosling and Margot Robbie to take him for a ride.
"I'm excited to see two of the most beautiful people on the planet while I listen to my own song," he shared. "That's pretty amazing, in and of itself."
For her part, Gerwig is amazed the hit made its way into her film, also starring Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon, Simu Liu and Dua Lipa.
"Just thinking about 13-year-old me singing along and really meaning it, I was like, 'That is so interesting,'" she told USA Today. "I looked it up and, in a way, [Thomas] was playing a character. It's almost like a story song."
Now for more secrets from the Barbie movie, keep reading.
Margot Robbie, who stars as Barbie and also produced the film, admitted in an interview that she always wanted Ryan Gosling to be her Ken. She said he was written into the script — as the character "Ken Ryan Gosling" — and joked, "We pretty much wouldn't take no for an answer."
"We just kept bothering you," writer/director Greta Gerwig admitted to Gosling in an SXM interview. "Margot was like, 'Is it weird if I go to his house?' I was like, 'Don't go to his house. We're just gonna stay put.' Send a follow-up text." As Robbie teased, "I would see a sea of blue on my phone."
Gosling revealed that Robbie gave him daily gifts inspired by his character Beach Ken.
"She left a pink present with a pink bow, from Barbie to Ken, every day while we were filming," Gosling told Vogue. "They were all beach-related. Like puka shells, or a sign that says 'Pray for surf.'" He said that he's "never quite figured out" what Ken's job as "Beach" means, "But I felt like she was trying to help Ken understand, through these gifts that she was giving."
Amy Schumer explained the real reason she dropped out of the Barbie movie.
"I think we said it was scheduling conflict, that's what we said," she said on "Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen" in June 2023. "But yeah, it really was just, like, creative differences. But you know what? There's, like, a new team behind it, and it looks like it's very feminist and cool. So, I will be seeing that movie."
These Barbies were almost movie stars — or, rather, these movie stars were almost Barbies. After Schumer left the movie, Anne Hathaway was signed up to take the lead, but it was later reported that she was no longer involved. When Robbie got on board, she tried to recruit Gal Gadot to join as another Barbie, but the "Wonder Woman" star wasn't available.
Greta Gerwig's former Lady Bird and Little Women muse Saoirse Ronan was also supposed to appear in Barbie but had to cancel. "I was supposed to do a cameo because I live in London and they were [filming] there," the actress admitted to People. "There was a whole character I was going to play — another Barbie. I was gutted I couldn't do it."
Casting director Allison Jones revealed "Saturday Night Live" star Bowen Yang, "Schitt's Creek" actor Dan Levy and
"Dear Evan Hansen" actor Ben Platt almost played Kens in the movie but weren't able to make it work. She added, "They were, I'm not kidding, really bummed they couldn't do it."
According to the casting director, before Michael Cera came on board as Ken's buddy Allan, the part almost went to a certain "Frozen" actor.
"Dear, dear Jonathan Groff was like, 'I can't believe I'm typing this,'" Allison Jones told Vanity Fair, "'but I can't do Allan.'"
America Ferrera's IRL husband Ryan Piers Williams plays none other than her character Gloria's husband in Barbie. Williams — whose past work includes producing, writing and acting in "X/Y" with America in 2014 — is credited as "El Esposo de Gloria."
Going where no Barbie has gone before... The opening scene of Barbie pays homage to the 1968 Stanley Kubrick film "2001: A Space Odyssey," which shows a group of hominins discovering a futuristic monolith. In "Barbie," a group of girls are shocked by a giant version of the original 1959 Barbie doll, wearing a black and white striped swimsuit.
Fans speculate that Gerwig's daughter Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt) and her friends in the cafeteria were inspired by Barbie's rivals, the original Bratz dolls: Sasha, Chloe, Yasmin and Jade.
"It was a happy accident," John Cena told "Today" of his casting as a Mermaid Ken. He said he "kind of" pitched himself to join the film "in an accidental run-in with Margot Robbie." As he recalled, he told the actress, "'I would do, pretty much, whatever you guys need 'cause I really enjoy the movie,' and they asked me if I wanted to be a merman."
The French version of Barbie's poster went viral after social media users pointed out the double entendre of the translation. The tagline, "She can do everything. He's just Ken," was translated to, "Elle peut tout faire. Lui, c'est juste Ken."
However, fans went wild after pointing out that "ken" has a slang meaning in French as "f---" and would translate to, "He can only f---." Bonjour, Ken!
The Barbie actresses revealed they had a cast sleepover at London hotel Claridge's to get close. "We all shared beds and wore our pajamas, and ordered room service," Robbie revealed on "The Kelly Clarkson Show," "and played games, and found out that America is exceptionally competitive."
America had her own tea to spill about the evening. "Nobody told me that it was a sexy Barbie sleepover," she quipped. "So everybody was in like really pretty silky nightgowns, and I was in like the most grandma floral twin set you can imagine."
As for the Kens? "Greta was very deliberate in what she wanted the Kens to do to bond," Simu Liu exclusively told E! News, "which was to gym together."
Though Nicola Coughlan only appeared for a few moments in the film, it was very important to her that she experience life in plastic.
"I auditioned for Barbie back in January 22 when I was on holiday with friends," she wrote on Instagram. "I'd packed one random hot pink dress I hadn't worn at all and when I had to make my audition tape I thought—this is fate, I have a dress in Barbie Pink!"
Admitting she's "obsessed" with Greta Gerwig, the "Bridgerton" star said that "the prospect of working with her was something I couldn't even have imagined."
"When I found out she wanted to have me be part of @barbiethemovie, and then that I probably wouldn't be able to make it work because of my schedule I was firstly elated and quickly heartbroken," Coughlan continued. "So when I was asked if I wanted to pop into Barbieland even briefly my answer was an immediate, and very emphatic yes."
The film concludes with Margot Robbie adopting a new life as a human named Barbara Handler, a reference to Barbie inventor Ruth Handler's real-life daughter. Barbie enters an office building and delivers her final line to a receptionist: "I'm here to see my gynecologist."
Why did Gerwig end on that note? "With this film, it was important for me that everything operated on at least two levels," she told USA Today. "I knew I wanted to end on a mic drop kind of joke, but I also find it very emotional. When I was a teenage girl, I remember growing up and being embarrassed about my body, and just feeling ashamed in a way that I couldn't even describe. It felt like everything had to be hidden."
The director said she hoped the way Robbie delivered the line with a "big old smile on her face" and with "such happiness and joy" would help de-stigmatize conversations about women's health and "give girls that feeling of, 'Barbie does it, too' — that's both funny and emotional."
