Greta Gerwig Almost Got Two Little Women Stars To Cameo In Barbie
Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" has had a fantastic marketing campaign and early buzz for the movie indicates it lives up to the trailers' promise. Everyone has boarded the hype train so it's hard to remember that Gerwig choosing the project was, initially, a shock.
Part of the mumblecore movement, Gerwig has traditionally been an indie darling. Her breakout acting role, "Frances Ha," and her solo directorial debut, "Lady Bird," were small, semi-autobiographical movies. Her second directing project was 2019's "Little Women" — it was star-studded with a bigger budget than Gerwig's previous work, but also an adaptation of a literary classic.
News of Gerwig helming a movie as commercial as "Barbie" was a shock and some cinephiles panicked, especially with the news that "Barbie" is part of her larger plans for a pivot to big budgets. However, by all signs, Gerwig's filmmaking sensibilities aren't invisible in "Barbie" — the teaser referenced "2001: A Space Odyssey," of all things. Gerwig was also mindful of her roots during production; we've previously covered her attempts to include her muse Saoirse Ronan in "Barbie." Speaking to CinemaBlend, Gerwig reveals that Ronan's foiled "Barbie" cameo would've reunited her with Timothee Chalamet.
According to Gerwig, Ronan could never have a large part in "Barbie" because of her work at Arcade Pictures, her new independent production company (Gerwig added she is "so proud" of Ronan for this next step). "It was going to be a specialty cameo," Gerwig continued. "I was also going to do a specialty cameo with Timmy, and both of them couldn't do it, and I was so annoyed."
This Barbie is an acclaimed director
If the cameo was designed for the pair, my guess is Ronan would've been one of the Barbies and Chalamet her corresponding Ken. I'm quite disappointed this cameo didn't pan out — so is Gerwig, who admitted it was odd to make a movie without her go-to young actors: "But I love them so much. But it felt like doing something without my children. I mean, I'm not their mom, but I sort of feel like their mom."
The truest sign of how close Gerwig and Ronan are? The former trusts the latter to embody herself onscreen. The lead of "Lady Bird," played by Ronan, is a college-bound Catholic schoolgirl in 2000s Sacramento, i.e. a stand-in for Gerwig's younger self. In "Little Women," Ronan plays Jo March. I'd say of the four March sisters, Gerwig relates the most to Jo — they're both writers trying to make it in a man's world, after all. The tell is that Gerwig rewrites the story's ending to make Jo into a published author, the original novel's ending being presented as the ending of Jo's own book.
In "Lady Bird," Chalamet plays Kyle, the aloof faux-philosophical f***boy who Ronan's Christine loses her virginity to. In "Little Women," he's Laurie, who infamously doesn't end up with Jo despite a stirring love confession. Ronan and Chalamet's characters never quite get together in Gerwig's films. Whether they keep the pattern running or not, I do hope that Ronan isn't too busy with producing, and Chalamet with his Muad'Dib duties, for them to work with Gerwig again.
"Barbie" premieres in theaters on July 21.