Barbie Star Hari Nef Calls Movie “Greta Gerwig’s Drag Race”

July is going to be a big month for movies, and one of the most-anticipated films of the summer is Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. The movie is set to star Margot Robbie (Birds of Prey) as Barbie and Ryan Gosling (Drive) as Ken in addition to other big names. There are many actors playing various versions of Barbie and Ken, including Hari Nef (The Idol). Recently, Nef chatted with Out Magaize alongside some of her LGBTQ+ co-stars and compared making the movie to being on RuPaul’s Drag Race. 

“I’ve joked before, it really did feel like ‘Greta Gerwig’s Drag Race,’” Nef said. “Because I was doing acting, dancing, comedy, and the whole time I was cinched, wigged, painted from head to toe, padded, heels.”

“It’s a very specific kind of femininity,” Nef said of Barbieland. “It’s not a kind of femininity that I live every single day of my life in, but it’s one that I come back to time and time again. It’s also one that I feel very comfortable wearing in public, and when the cameras are on and when people are watching.”

Previously, Gerwig spoke to IndieWire about casting Nef as one of the film’s Barbies. 

“I saw Hari’s audition tape for Barbie and just flipped out,” Gerwig explained. “I ran into the producer’s office with a computer and pressed play and said, ‘That is it. That is our movie.’ She had a joyfulness and playfulness and twinkling intelligent humor, which was exactly the tone: knowing but not snarky, buoyant but not vapid.”

What Is Barbie About?

In Barbie, to live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken. From Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig comes Barbie, which hits theaters on July 21st. Barbie stars Oscar-nominees Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, alongside America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Michael Cera, Ariana Greenblatt, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, and Will Ferrell. The film also stars Ana Cruz Kayne, Emma Mackey, Hari Nef, Alexandra Shipp, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Scott Evans, Jamie Demetriou, Connor Swindells, Sharon Rooney, Nicola Coughlan, Ritu Arya, Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Dua Lipa and Oscar-winner Helen Mirren. Gerwig directed Barbie from a screenplay by Gerwig & Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach, based on Barbie by Mattel.