Actors Who Auditioned For 'Barbie' As Ken Had To Be Told Not To Take Their Shirts Off

justjared.com:

Ryan Gosling might have had a few semi-shirtless scenes in Barbie, but it wasn’t a requirement for the actors auditioning for another Ken role in the movie.

The casting directors for the movie, Allison Jones and Lucy Bevan, revealed a new behind-the-scenes fact about the actors who came in for a Ken role – that they had to actually be told that they didn’t have to take their shirts off for it. Keep reading to find out more… Speaking to MotionPictures.org, the two shared that there were a lot of big names who went out for a part in the flick. “Huge actors went on tape with only seeing a few pages of dialogue,” Allison shared with the outlet, adding that tapes were then sent to director Greta Gerwig to identify talents for Barbies and Kens. Allison went on, “She really made the characters for who she liked best in different auditions.

The thing that Greta did always stress was that none of these people were sarcastic or winking at the camera. They were really Kens and Barbies.” Lucy then shared that some of the actors went so far in their tapes as to take their shirts off. “There were certain scenes we used to audition, and the fine line between the comedy and sincerity of those characters is a difficult balance,” she says. “Some of the Kens would take off their t-shirts, and we were like, no, no, you don’t need to take off your t-shirt.

But Simu [Liu] just nailed that [line] in the film.” In a previous interview, Lucy and Allison also revealed the four actors who had to turn down the roles of Ken, and Allan!