Posted in: Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: barbie, Simu Liu, Warner Bros, warner bros discovery
Simu Liu Says That Barbie Is About "Finding Your Inner Beauty"
There are many reasons why this is the weirdest timeline we are existing in, but the fact that many people are legitimately excited about a Barbie movie that is coming next summer is really wild if you think about it. At the moment, we only have a vague teaser from the film to go on and not much else, but little plot details have started to come out. One of those little plot details is that Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are not the only versions of Barbie and Ken that we will see. One of those versions we will see is played by Simu Liu. He recently said at the Unforgettable Gala (via Vanity Fair) that the film is really about finding your inner beauty no matter who you are and what you might look like.
"I remember very clearly about some of our big intricate dance sequences. Greta was very, very conscientious about who she cast. We were able to cast people of different shapes, sizes, differently abled to all participate in this dance—all under this message of: You don't have to be blonde, white, or X, Y, Z in order to embody what it means to be a Barbie or a Ken," says Liu. "It's really about finding your inner beauty and owning that part of yourself and being the best possible version of you. … I will say, going on set, I was never isolated. I felt like I was going to work every day with a cast that really celebrated each other and celebrated each other's differences, no matter where we came from. I think when you watch the movie, you'll see that reflected on the screen."
In the teaser trailer and in the above image, we got to see some of the massive and elaborate dance scenes that we will see in the Barbie movie. Liu explained that he felt like he had a leg up on those scenes in particular because he had a background in hip-hop via his university's team. He thinks that this was even one of the reasons that he got the role.
"One of my first conversations with Greta, I told her, 'Well, I don't want to brag, but I was on my university's hip-hop dance team.' And she literally screamed. So I feel like that ended up playing a very critical role in me getting this project," says the Marvel star. "But it was fun to get to reignite that part of me, 'cause I feel like after I started work as an accountant and then subsequently as an actor, I kind of forgot that I love dancing. This movie was definitely an opportunity to reconnect to that part of myself, so I was very happy."
This film and the various set shots that came out this year look absolutely insane, and again, we live in a timeline where we are stocked as hell for a Barbie movie. It's going up against a Christopher Nolan history biopic and will probably be a tight race. This summer looks packed with awesome movies, and Barbie is right at the top of the list.
Barbie: Summary, Cast List, Release Date
Barbie stars Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Will Ferrell, Emma Mackey, Connor Swindells, Nicola Coughlan, Emerald Fennell, Kate McKinnon, Michael Cera, Simu Liu, America Ferrera, Ncuti Gatwa, Issa Rae, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Rhea Perlman, Sharon Rooney, Scott Evans, Ana Cruz Kayne, Hari Nef, Alexandra Shipp, Ritu Arya, and Jamie Demetriou. It is directed by Greta Gerwig from a script by Gerwig and Noah Baumbach. It will be released on July 21, 2023.