The Wonder Woman star could’ve been Mattel-ified
Best known for her turn as Wonder Woman,Gal Gadot nearly landed the role of a second pop culture icon in one of the 2023’s most anticipated movies.
It was revealed that the Israeli actress, 38, was actually in contention to play the titular role of Barbie in the upcoming upcoming Greta Gerwig movie, as per Margot Robbie.
In her cover interview with Vogue, the Australian star, 32, shared that she and the Oscar-nominated director looked Gal’s way for her “Barbie energy,” and she was the prime choice for the main role.
Margot gushed: “Gal Gadot is Barbie energy. Because Gal Gadot is so impossibly beautiful, but you don’t hate her for being that beautiful, because she’s so genuinely sincere, and she’s so enthusiastically kind, that it’s almost dorky. It’s like right before being a dork.”
Sadly, the Death on the Nile star wasn’t available at the time, although she’s incredibly supportive of her fellow females, giving Margot a shout-out on her Instagram Stories.
Alongside a screenshot of an article which discussed the casting choice, she wrote: “I’m in for the next one sister!!! Can’t wait to watch it!”
The film, which comes out on July 21, did cast several other stars as multiple versions of Barbie (and Ken), including Issa Rae, Dua Lipa, Nicola Coughlan, Kate McKinnon, Emma Mackey, and Ritu Arya, to name a few.
Though the official film starring Margot as “Stereotypical Barbie” and directed by the Ladybird filmmaker, who wrote the movie with partner Noah Baumbach, was only confirmed in 2019, Hollywood has been trying to make a Barbie movie as far back as 2009.
It started when Mattel signed a deal with Universal Pictures in 2009, though it wasn’t until 2014 that Sony Pictures started developing a script from Sex and the City writer Jenny Bicks, after which Juno writer Diablo Cody came on, though no Barbie movie made its way from Barbie Land to Hollywood for years to come.
In 2016, Amy Schumer was announced as Barbie, though by the following year, she was out, and Anne Hathaway was in instead. Then she was also out, and now, ten years later, we’ve finally landed on the I, Tonya star.
Not only is it one of the year’s most anticipated releases, but it’s already the most buzz-worthy and influential, having sparked a wave of “Barbiecore” trends long before release.
In 2022 particularly, the Barbiecore aesthetic exploded, becoming a mainstay on several red carpets and runways, an exploration of hyper-feminine styles in bright pinks and pastels, a lot of which was attributed to early interest in the movie and the release of stills and behind-the-scenes imagery.
Vogue attributed it to the movie as well, writing at the time: “The filming of Greta Gerwig’s forthcoming movie has made Barbiecore – which mostly translates into skimpy looks in bright pink – the trend of this summer. It’s not the first time, and won’t be the last, that this überfeminine aesthetic has peaked.”
See more moments from the upcoming Barbie movie below:
