Greta Gerwig fought to keep the ‘I’m Just Ken’ song in ‘Barbie’
While the sequence has become a favourite for fans, Greta Gerwig has revealed that the ‘I’m Just Ken’ dance sequence in the phenomenally successful Barbie movie had to be fought for.
Also released independently, the song features Ryan Gosling as Mattel’s Ken doll – pouring his heart out and grappling with his identity. Written by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, ‘I’m Just Ken’ broke into the UK’s top 40 charts, as well as reaching 86 on the Billboard Hot 100.
However, during a recent conversation with Peep Show writer and Succession creator Jesse Armstrong, the director revealed that she had to fight to include the scene during a “big meeting”.
Explaining to Armstrong how the moment had been written in the scene, Gerwig said, “It just said in the script, ‘And then it becomes a dream ballet, and they work it out through dance’.”
She further explained how studio executives and Mattel could not initially imagine it. “There was a big meeting that was like, ‘Do you need this?’ And I was like, ‘Everything in me needs this’. They were like, ‘What do you even mean? What is a dream ballet?’ And I was like, ‘A dream ballet? Where do I begin!'”
Gerwig told Armstrong that she had confidence in her idea, partly because it was inspired by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen’s 1952 classic, Singin’ in the Rain, which the director explained features “dream ballet inside of a dream ballet”.
“I was like, if people could follow that in Singin’ In The Rain, I think we’ll be fine,” Gerwig said. “I think people will know what this is. So that was the big reference point. Even though everything felt right to me and was giving me so much joy in the way we were doing it, it was also like, ‘Oh no, this could be just terrible, but now I’m committed.'”
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