The ‘Barbie’ Ensemble Plays Well Together

As we prepare for the 30th Screen Actors Guild Awards, Backstage is breaking down this year’s film and television ensemble work for your consideration. For more voting guides and roundups, we’ve got you covered here.

Main Cast: Michael Cera, Will Ferrell, America Ferrera, Ryan Gosling, Ariana Greenblatt, Kate McKinnon, Rhea Perlman, Issa Rae, Margot Robbie
Casting by: Lucy Bevan and Allison Jones 
Directed by: Greta Gerwig 
Written by: Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig 
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures

Let’s just get this out of the way: Margot Robbie will forever be Barbie.

Not in a typecasting sort of way, hopefully, but because one of Hollywood’s most undeniable stars took on a mythic, seemingly impenetrable character—an 11.5-inch plastic icon whose name is synonymous with troubling beauty standards—and brought her to pop culture-defining, box office-shattering life.

Robbie gets to perform the kind of arc that most actors only dream of, and she seizes the moment in every frame of Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s film. Initially, the Oscar nominee plays Barbie with a blissful, blank-eyed innocence that matches up with our perceptions of the famous blond doll. But when she experiences an existential crisis, the cracks begin to show in her perfect veneer.

When Barbie ventures beyond the home she’s always known, Robbie builds a flesh-and-blood person from all that plastic. Though she’s shocked by the sexism and catcalling she experiences in the real world, she also sees its beauty. In one of the film’s most poignant moments, the sight of an older woman on a park bench leads Barbie to realize the value of a long life well-lived—while decked out in a flawless pink rodeo number, natch. 

To understand Robbie’s performance in “Barbie,” it helps to consider it within the context of her larger acting career. Ever since her breakout in 2013’s “The Wolf of Wall Street,” she’s taken on a series of roles that examine complicated femininity, from a disgraced figure skater in “I, Tonya” (2017) to a cartoonish supervillain on a journey of self-actualization in “Birds of Prey” (2020). But Gerwig’s film gives the actor her biggest challenge yet: digging deep to find the emotional core of an inanimate piece of intellectual property.

Helping Robbie deconstruct gender hegemony while wearing a matching outfit, Ryan Gosling almost steals the show—almost—as Ken. If you want to talk about fertile ground for a performer, just look to the film’s marketing slogan: “She’s everything. He’s just Ken.” The actor channels the weirder side of the all-American boy toy as Barbie’s other half. He goes through an evolution, too, trading himbo glee for darker impulses, leading a full musical number along the way. 

A who’s-who of Hollywood stars surround the central pair, so diverse that each new cast reveal on social media prompted gasps across the internet. As various iterations of Barbie, emerging talents Emma Mackey, Alexandra Shipp, Hari Nef, and Sharon Rooney each make their own mark on the ultimate symbol of feminine conformity. Issa Rae’s President Barbie and Kate McKinnon’s Weird Barbie add touches of power and peculiarity to Gerwig’s immaculately designed world.

And you can’t talk about the filmmaker’s multidimensional vision of Barbieland without mentioning Michael Cera’s Allan, the only man in town whose name isn’t Ken. His inability to fit in with the rest of the guys gave the queer community much to discuss on TikTok.

As Gloria, Barbie’s guide to the real world, America Ferrera sells a now-viral monologue about the impossibility of living up to patriarchal standards of what women are supposed to be. Meanwhile, as the gray-clad CEO of Mattel, Will Ferrell gloriously blends his signature comic energy into the neon playscape of the film.

High praise is due to Rhea Perlman as Ruth Handler, the real-life creator of the titular doll. The actor has been a warm but caustic presence for generations in vehicles ranging from “Cheers” to “Matilda.” Late in the film, Handler appears to Barbie as a divine presence, delivering a line that shattered millions of hearts: “We mothers stand still so our daughters can look back and see how far they’ve come.”

It just goes to show that when you make a movie about one of the most famous toys in history, you need an ensemble that knows how to play well with others.