Issa Rae Stewart Cook dinner/Shutterstock
This Barbie is a body-positive queen — and her title is Issa Rae.
“Proper earlier than [the role came to me], I used to be post-Insecure, publish–Rap Sh!t, and post-the-final-season-of-Insecure-press-tour. I used to be like, ‘Effectively, I’m going to let myself go. I’m consuming all the pieces,’” Rae, 38, advised Glamour in an interview printed on Friday, July 21. “After which I acquired the decision to do Barbie and was like, ‘Oh, no, I’m not Barbie-shape prepared.’ However then I noticed Greta [Gerwig]‘s Barbie world consists of all physique varieties. So, whereas I used to be nonetheless on my health journey, I felt much less insecure about my Barbie physique or lack thereof.”
The Insecure alum performs President Barbie within the extremely anticipated flick, which hit theaters on Friday. The film — costarring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling — brings Mattel’s beloved doll line to life as Robbie’s Barbie and Gosling’s Ken journey from the pink-accented Barbie Land into the true world. The OG toys have been primarily recognized for his or her slim physiques and completely coiffed blonde locks, pictures that originally anxious Rae.
“That was one thing that I used to be involved about too — who’re the opposite Barbies, and what do they seem like?” she confessed to Glamour, noting director Gerwig, 39, prioritized casting a various crop of actors. “I noticed that instantly on my first day once I was doing the dance sequence rehearsal. There have been so many several types of Barbies, and so many several types of Kens. Some able-bodied, ages, genders. Greta did her greatest to attempt to embrace everyone.”
Rae continued: “Barbie Land is ideal. Everybody in Barbie Land is an ideal Barbie. I discovered that so lovely. Virtually everybody on the earth is represented in a roundabout way right here. That’s not a straightforward piece. I’m certain somebody is likely to be like, ‘The place am I?’ However know that there was such an effort made to have Barbie Land be inclusive.”
Issa Rae in ‘Barbie.’ Courtesy Warner Bros. Footage
Barbie incorporates a star-studded lineup of actors, together with Nicola Coughlan, Ritu Arya, Sharon Rooney, Hari Nef, Kate McKinnon, Dua Lipa, Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir and Ncuti Gatwa.
Liu, 34, has equally praised the movie’s dedication to inclusivity and variety, proving that each sort of particular person is usually a Barbie or a Ken.
“Greta was very, very conscientious about who she solid,” the Marvel star gushed to Self-importance Honest in January. “We have been capable of solid folks of various shapes, sizes, in a different way abled, to all take part on this dance [scene] — all below this message of, ‘You don’t must be blonde, white, or X, Y, Z with a purpose to embody what it means to be a Barbie or a Ken.’ I felt like I used to be going to work daily with a solid that actually celebrated one another and celebrated one another’s variations, regardless of the place we got here from. I believe once you watch the film, you’ll see that mirrored on the display screen.”
