Barbie Actress Hari Nef Writes Emotional Letter About Movie’s Importance

Barbie actress Hari Nef talked about how she became a part of the movie on social media. Fans really loved the heartfelt letter from the Assassination Nation actress. Originally, Nef wouldn’t have been able to act in Barbie due to a scheduling conflict. However, the actress wrote director Greta Gerwig and star Margot Robbie a letter about her situation. She lays out a compelling case to be included and the personal significance behind the “doll” distinction in popular culture. Of course, there are nuanced readings of Barbie over the years. (Heck, it looks like the movie is leaning into those, Barbie is everything being the tagline helps illustrate that.) So, check out her message right here.

“when i heard i was cast as a barbie in the barbie movie, it looked like i was maybe not going to be able to do the film because of a scheduling conflict. so i wrote greta and margot a letter essentially begging them to fudge the schedule a little bit. part of what i wrote was:”

when i heard i was cast as a barbie in the barbie movie, it looked like i was maybe not going to be able to do the film because of a scheduling conflict. so i wrote greta and margot a letter essentially begging them to fudge the schedule a little bit. part of what i wrote was: pic.twitter.com/dBG05Rog1z

— hari nef (@harinef) April 4, 2023

“This is a big movie, made by a team whose work has played no small role in cultivating my love of sitting the dark in front of big screens for an hour or two. But, that’s just a part of why I want-my heart say “need”-to join in the making of this film. Identity politics and cinema aren’t my favorite combination, but the name BARBIE looms large over every American woman. Barbie’s the standard; she’s The Girl; she’s certainly THE doll. Me and my girlfriends-okay, yeah, me and my other transgender girlfriends- we started calling ourselves ‘the dolls’ a couple of years ago, though the phrase stretches back into the language of our foremothers in the ballroom scene.”

“‘The Dolls.’ Maybe it’s a bid to ratify our femininity, to smile and sneer at the standards we’re held to as women. It’s a joke, of course; we throw our voices” ‘the do-o-lls!’ But underneath the word ‘doll’ is the shape of a woman who is not quite a woman-recognizable as such, but still a fake. ‘Doll’ is fraught, glamorous; she is, and she isn’t. We call ourselves ‘the dolls’ in the face of everything we know we are, never will be, hope to be. We yell the world because the word matters. And no doll matters more than Barbie.” 

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