Related Articles
Billie Eilish showed off her deep knowledge of the Barbie canon, Dua Lipa discussed the doll’s early influence on her adventurous fashion, and Simu Liu spoke about the brilliant inclusivity of Barbieland with Rolling Stone on the pink carpet at the premiere for Greta Gerwig’s Barbie Sunday night.
Eilish was one of the surprise contributors to the Barbie soundtrack; her song “What Was I Made For?” was announced last week. As it turns out, the pop star not only has a deep affinity for Barbie, but as her brother-collaborator Finneas pointed out, has a vast knowledge of the extended Barbie universe and its lore.
“She was dropping some names just now from Fairytopia that I had no idea about,” Finneas quipped, referring to one of several mid-2000s animated Barbie movies.
“Mermaidia, Fairytopia — all those movies are my shit,” Eilish explained. “Like everybody else, Barbie was day and night, my life. I made them do crazy things with each other and all that stuff — not to be weird. But yeah, I love my Barbies.”
Eilish also spoke a bit about “What Was I Made For?” saying she hopes fans will “listen to the lyrics” and “take it from there” (the full song isn’t out yet, but a snippet of the ballad appeared in a new trailer released today). “I feel like it’s probably not what people thought a Barbie song would be like, and that’s cool to me,” Eilish added. “It means a lot to me, and it’s really personal for me. I feel like I put my feet in Barbie’s shoes for it a little bit.”
Dua Lipa, who appears in the film as Mermaid Barbie and contributed the song for the film’s big dance number, “Dance the Night,” spoke about working on the song with Mark Ronson, as well as her own relationship with the classic toy.
“Barbie, for me, she was my experiment doll. I did a lot of haircuts and a lot of experimenting on my Barbie,” she said. “I think Barbie influenced all the weird fashion things that I ended up doing.”
Speaking of that big dance number, Issa Rae — who plays President Barbie — recalled her wild experience prepping for the scene. Rae said she thought she would have time to learn the choreography with the rest of the cast, but eventually found out that rehearsals were scheduled for her first day on set. So to prep, Rae said she got a video of the dance to help her catch up as much as possible.
“And then I flew in and by the time I landed, they were like, ‘Oh, we changed the dance!’” Rae recalled. “So then I had like a couple of hours to learn before I went to go practice with everyone.’ It felt like being the new girl on the first day of school and you can’t dance!”
Also on the pink carpet was Simu Liu, who plays one of the Ken variations. For Liu, the new film captured, and channeled, a special kind of inclusivity that maybe people wouldn’t expect from a movie inspired by what’s historically been seen as the ultimate toy for young girls.
“I grew up with all these really restrictive rules about what boys and girls were able to do, and what they couldn’t do — and I just love that Barbieland is for everyone,” he said. “I love that everyone can step into their own light, wear whatever they want to wear, and be whoever they want to be. Being on set with the incredible Barbies and Kens of all shapes and sizes, coming from all walks of life — it really cements the message that Barbieland is for everybody.”
