As well as its banging soundtrack, plastic fantastic aesthetic and heavy helpings of nostalgia, one thing that helped make Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie such a success over the summer was its A-list cast.
Joining Margot Robbie in Barbie Land were the likes of Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon, Emma Mackey and Dua Lipa, while the Kens were played by stars including Ncuti Gatwa, Simu Liu and, of course, Ryan Gosling.
However, it turns out there was almost another A-lister joining them as another addition into the Ken-dom.
Fellow Travelers star Matt Bomer has revealed he had a successful audition for the hit movie, after impressing director Greta Gerwig with his self-taped video.
“I recorded it on my own, played a bunch of different Kens—and I dressed differently for all of them,” the former American Horror Story actor told Vanity Fair.
“I recorded the lines of the other person’s dialogue on my recorder and then gave myself space to respond.”
After a conversation with Greta, though, he then decided to walk away from the opportunity, as he didn’t want to spend so much time away from his family.
But Matt is far from the only big-name actor to almost land a part in the film.
Barbie’s casting director Allison Jones previously named Schitt’s Creek actor Dan Levy, Broadway performer Ben Platt and Fire Island star Bowen Yang as Kens who couldn’t do the film due to scheduling conflicts.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Groff was due to play Allan before the role went to Michael Cera.
Luke Macfarlane, who recently starred opposite Billy Eichner in the romantic comedy Bros, was also supposed to play a “small” role in Barbie, but had to decline the offer due to another filming commitment.
Meanwhile, Greta has also revealed she’d intended for two of her regular A-list collaborators to appear in cameo roles, although this didn’t ultimately work out either.