Saoirse Ronan reveals axed Barbie role

Saoirse Ronan has revealed she was meant to have a role in the Barbie film, but didn’t get to take part.

The Irish actress said she was lined up to be “a weird Barbie” in Greta Gerwig’s runaway hit.

Australian actress Margot Robbie stars as the main character, Stereotypical Barbie, while Ryan Gosling plays Ken – but there are also lots of other versions of the dolls, including Judge Barbie and Mermaid Barbie, and Sugar Daddy Ken.

Saturday Night Live comedian Kate McKinnon plays Weird Barbie, and Ronan told US publication Variety she would have starred alongside her.

The 29-year-old actress, who starred in Gerwig’s 2017 movie Lady Bird and her 2019 adaptation of Little Women, said: “I worked with Jacqueline Durran, the costume designer.

“After they’d made it, I was like, who was I going to be anyway?

“Because I had a scene but didn’t ever get to do it and I wasn’t in the movie… and she was like, ‘Oh, obviously you are going to be a really weird Barbie, Saoirse’.”

Reflecting on what her Barbie could have been like, Ronan said: “I think I’d be the very strange girl that talked to herself and always had her pet dog with her all the time and she just talked to the dog and wouldn’t look at anyone.”

Gerwig had revealed to entertainment site Cinema Blend in July 2023 that Ronan and Wonka actor Timothee Chalamet were both meant to have a “specialty cameo”, but said the actress was producing at the time.

“Both of them couldn’t do it, and I was so annoyed,” she said.

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Chalamet starred opposite Ronan in Little Women, as Laurie, and played her character’s love interest, Kyle, in Lady Bird.

Following Barbie’s release, Warner Bros said the movie contributed more than £80m to the UK economy.

The film, which Gerwig co-wrote with her partner Noah Baumbach, has been nominated for a slew of awards and won the first Golden Globe for cinematic and box office achievement earlier in January.