Margot Robbie will play the iconic fashion doll in Greta Gerwig's upcoming Barbie movie, but an earlier incarnation of the film was going to star Amy Schumer (Trainwreck, Life and Beth).
When Schumer parted ways with the project a few years ago, the trades reported that it was due to a scheduling conflict, but the actress/comedian has now revealed the real reason she decided not to play the role.
“I can’t wait to see the [new] movie," she told Vulture. "I think it looks awesome. I think we said it was scheduling conflicts. But it really was just like, creative differences. But there’s a new team behind it and it looks like it’s very feminist and cool, so I will be seeing this movie.”
The original take on the story would have seen Schumer's Barbie kicked out of Barbieland for not being perfect enough, only to return to save it once she’s figured out that perfect is being yourself. We're not sure what changed to make the actress feel that it lost some of its feminist message, but it sounds like Gerwig's film brings things back on track.
From Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig (Little Women, Lady Bird) comes Barbie, which also stars America Ferrera (End of Watch, the How to Train Your Dragon films), Kate McKinnon (Bombshell, Yesterday), Issa Rae (The Photograph, Insecure), Rhea Perlman (I’ll See You in My Dreams, Matilda), and Will Ferrell (the Anchorman films, Talladega Nights), and more.
Gerwig directs from a screenplay she penned alongside Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story, The Squid and the Whale), based on the iconic fashion dolls by Mattel.
The film’s producers are Oscar nominee David Heyman (Marriage Story, Gravity), Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Robbie Brenner, with Gerwig, Baumbach, Ynon Kreiz, Richard Dickson, Michael Sharp, Josey McNamara, Courtenay Valenti, Toby Emmerich and Cate Adams serving as executive producers.