During a Q&A last week, Michael Cera dropped the bombshell that there were plans in place for Ben to appear in the film during a fight scene between his character, Allan, and a group of “construction Kens” working just outside Barbie Land.
“I wasn’t even supposed to fight in the movie,” Michel said. “Am I allowed to say what it was supposed to be? It was supposed to be Ben Affleck. Right? Am I allowed to say that?”
He didn’t offer any other details on the scrapped cameo, so it’s slightly unclear whether Greta Gerwig had intended for Ben to play Allan, or if the Batman star would’ve appeared as one of the construction worker Kens.
However, Michael did reveal that Ben had to drop out at the last minute because of commitments relating to his movie Air, which he starred in and directed last year.
“I think Ben wanted to do it, but he was directing his movie,” the Superbad actor said. “They’re like, ‘Okay, Ben’s out, something has to happen here. So you’re gonna fight them.’”
Being that he had to replace Ben in the fight scene at such short notice, Michael said that the stunt training came as a slight shock to the system.
“I had just gotten over COVID, and they had me training, and I almost died. Just doing the warm-up!” he recalled. “I had to lay down in my trailer, and they sent the nurse to see me, and I was sent home. So then we had a second rehearsal, and I learned it. That’s the story basically.”
Casting directors Allison Jones and Lucy Bevan previously told Vanity Fair that Dan Levy, Bowen Yang, and Ben Platt were all considered to play Kens, while Jonathan Groff almost played Allan.
What’s more, Greta revealed herself that she’d been desperate to get Timothée Chalamet and Saoirse Ronan to make surprise appearances in the movie, but was left devastated when it couldn’t work out.
“Both of them couldn’t do it,” she told CinemaBlend around the time of the film’s release. “I was so annoyed.”
“I love them so much… It felt like doing something without my children,” she said of the pair, who have appeared together in Greta’s other movies, Lady Bird and Little Women. “I mean, I’m not their mom, but I sort of feel like their mom.”
So… anyone up for a Barbie sequel?
