‘Annoying’: Barbie director Greta Gerwig names two A-list cameos she failed to secure for film

Director tried to get two former collaborators into film – to no avail

Greta Gerwig has named the two celebrity cameos she tried and failed to achieve for her star-studded Barbie film.

The director’s much-hyped film stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as the main doll and her partner Ken. You can read the first reactions from the film’s premiere here.

Emma Mackey, Issa Rae, and Hari Nef are among the actors playing other Barbies, while Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa and Kingsley Ben-Adir are among the other Kens.

However, in a new interview, Gerwig revealed that two of her previous collaborators, Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet slipped through the net.

“It was always going to have to be like a sort of smaller thing because [Saiorse] was actually producing at the time, which I am so proud of her for,” the 39-year-old told CinemaBlend. “It was going to be a specialty cameo.

“I was also going to do a specialty cameo with Timmy, and both of them couldn’t do it, and I was so annoyed. But I love them so much. It felt like doing something without my children. I mean, I’m not their mum, but I sort of feel like their mum.”

Ronan and Chalamet both appeared in Gerwig’s two films as a solo director: 2017’s Lady Bird, and 2019’s Little Women.

Other stars appearing in Barbie include America Ferrera, Will Ferrell, Michael Cera, John Cena, Dua Lipa, Nicola Coughlan, Kate McKinnon and Emerald Fennell. Helen Mirren serves as the film’s narrator.

From L-R: Timothée Chalamet, Laurie Metcalf, Greta Gerwig and Saoirse Ronan in 2018 (Getty Images)

Sex Education star Mackey was cast as an alternative Barbie after years of fans commenting that she looks like Robbie.

In fact, Robbie revealed in a new interview that the pair played up to the comparisons in a scene in Barbie that was eventually cut from the film.

“I’ve been getting told for years that I look like the girl from Sex Education, who is Emma Mackey,” the Australian actor said.

“She plays one of the Barbies in the movie pretty much because Greta and I thought it would be funny. We were gonna do this whole joke about us looking similar.”

However, the joke didn’t end up making the final cut after they realised they didn’t “look that similar” in costume.

Barbie is released in cinemas on Friday 21 July.