Exactly one week ago, ‘Barbie’ was released in theaters around the world to spark historic box office sales.
With a collection of 164 million dollars in its first weekend, ‘Barbie’ became the best premiere of the year, surpassing the ‘Super Mario Bros’ movie.
As if that wasn’t enough, the box-office performance makes it the highest-grossing film ever directed by a woman, with Greta Gerwig having achieved record numbers.
Margot Robbie is one of the biggest reasons. The famous Australian actress plays the role of the Mattel doll fantastically, and that makes it even harder to believe that the role could have gone to another actress. Below, we tell you which other performers were about to bring Barbie to life.
Amy Schumer, the first chosen to play Barbie and her controversial exit
Although this project had been simmering for many, many years, it was not until 2016 when Sony began to seriously look into making ‘Barbie’.
At that time, Amy Schumer joined the project as the chosen actress to play the role of the Mattel doll.
However, due to the slow pace of the project, the actress was forced to leave the cast. Or, at least, that was the initial excuse.
Some time later, Schumer revealed the real reason why she abandoned the idea of giving life to Barbie.
“They didn’t want to do it the way I wanted to do it, the only way I was interested in doing it,” she said.
The producers also sent her a controversial gift that she didn’t accept, world-famous Manolo Blahnik heels.
“The idea that that’s what every woman should want?” she asked.
“I should have told them they had the wrong girl.”
Anne Hathaway took over from Amy Schumer in the Barbie race
After Amy Schumer‘s controversial departure, Anne Hathaway took over in the summer of 2017. But, due to production delays, Mattel decided to part ways with Sony and took the film to Warner.
That’s when Margot Robbie appeared, not to play the doll, but as producer of the film.
Margot Robbie wanted Gal Gadot to bring Barbie to life
Both Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig decided that Gal Gadot was the right actress to bring Mattel’s doll to life.
According to the Australian, the Israeli actress had – and has – the energy of Barbie.
“Gal Gadot is so incredibly beautiful, but you don’t hate her for being so pretty because she’s so honest and kind,” she said.
However, due to scheduling problems, Gal Gadot could not commit to playing Barbie, and Margot Robbie became the leading lady.
The rest is history. Now, and after seeing the success of Greta Gerwig‘s film, it is impossible to imagine a Barbie played by anyone else.