Barbie Star Calls Filming Dance Scene “the Worst Day of My Life”

As it turns out, Barbie wasn’t exactly a party all of the time, at least not for star Issa Rae. Rae, who played President Barbie in the Greta Gerwig-directed film, recently told The Hollywood Reporter (via ET) that while she loved being in the movie and on the set, filming the dance scene — the group number set to Dua Lipa’s “Dance The Night” — was “the worst day” of her life.

“Doing the Dua Lipa song and dancing to it was my worst nightmare. It was the worst day of my life,” Rae said. “It was the best day of my life being on that set. It was exciting, and then, literally the first day, I had to learn the choreography to shoot the [following] day.”

She added, “We also didn’t have the lyrics to the song, Greta was like, ‘Oh, it’s going to be a Dua Lipa song.’ But all we had was the instrumental, so I was just like, ‘What the f-ck is this? What am I dancing to?’

But even though Rae didn’t exactly love the experience of filming that dance scene, she did have a great time making Barbie and even previously spoke about how much fun she had with her co-stars.

“We went out together at a club night, we had a couple of other crazy nights, so, she was all about facilitating bonding time,” Rae said. “I’m grateful for it. We were better for it. We did a lot of un-Barbie-like activities off-set.”

Will There Be a Barbie Sequel?

Barbie was a massive hit with critics and audiences and was a massive performer at the box office and almost immediately after its release there have been questions about whether there will be a sequel to the film. However, there have been reports that there were no deals or options in place for Gerwig or stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling to return. Even Robbie has said that the film wasn’t “designed to be a trilogy.”

“It’s funny, that knee-jerk reaction in this day and age for everyone to immediately ask about a sequel. I don’t think it was like that 20 years ago. This wasn’t designed to be a trilogy,” Robbie explained in a recent interview.

“Everything went into Barbie – and that’s how Greta works,” she continued. “She finishes every movie on empty, feeling like she could never make another movie because she put everything she had into that one. So, I don’t know what it would take to fill that cup up again for her. Or for us. I think Warners would also agree. I don’t know what more could even look like. We want to make more films that have the effect that Barbie has. I don’t know if it has to be Barbie 2. Why can’t it be another big, original, bold idea where we get an amazing filmmaker, a big budget to play with, and the trust of a huge conglomerate behind them to go and really play? I want to do that.”

Barbie Is Coming Back To Theaters

On Wednesday, Warner Bros. Pictures distribution presidents Jeff Goldstein and Andrew Cripps announced that Barbie is headed back to theaters for one week starting Friday, January 26th. 

“We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, we’ve never seen anything like the absolute cultural phenomenon that is Barbie,” said Goldstein and Cripps. “This masterful vision for Mattel’s doll could only have come from the creative minds of Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, and in Greta’s hands, Barbie became a must-go, must-see, must-wear-pink cinematic experience that was a brilliantly subversive commentary on our society, couched in an undeniably entertaining story. Greta and the film’s producers, artisans and cast, especially Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling and America Ferrera, delivered a one-of-a-kind film that we know will be viewed and talked about for years to come. We’re proud to have it as part of the Warner library of classics, and are excited to give moviegoers another chance to experience Barbie on the big screen.”