American stand-up comedian and actress Amy Schumer was once set to play the titular role in the live-action Barbie movie.
Suicide Squad star Margot Robbie took on the role instead, a decision Schumer claims was due to “scheduling conflicts” between her and the studio.
However, she later admitted that “creative differences” led her to cut ties with the project in 2017 after she was announced as the lead in 2016.
Schumer and her team were said to have worked on the script multiple times until finding a story that best suited her vision.
The movie was later handed to Greta Gerwig, who went on to work on her version of Barbie with her longtime partner, Noah Baumbach.
Gerwig’s Barbie went on to be a smash hit, bringing in over $1 billion at the box office and receiving praise from critics and audiences alike.
While talking with Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live, Schumer spoke about Gerwig’s version and revealed details regarding her exit from the project.
“They said I was too thin,” she joked.
She continued: “I think it looks awesome.”
“I think we said it was scheduling conflicts,” Schumer said when discussing the reasoning behind her departure from leading as Barbie.
However, she admitted: “But it really was just like, creative differences.”
“There’s a new team behind it, and it looks like it’s very feminist and cool,” she added.
“So, I will be seeing this movie.”
When asked by Cohen if Barbie “didn’t feel feminist and cool” when she was attached, Schumer responded, “Yeah.”
“They definitely didn’t want to do it the way I wanted to do it,” Schumer told The Hollywood Reporter in 2022.
“The only way I was interested in doing it.”
Schumer originally wanted her Barbie to be an “inventor” but the studio at the time wanted her big invention to be a shoe made out of Jell-O.
“The idea that that’s just what every woman must want, right there, I should have gone, ‘You’ve got the wrong gal.’”
