In fact, after she finished watching, she almost wished she hadn’t seen it at all.
It was such a great experience, says the 38-year-old, who plays President Barbie in theGreta Gerwigdirected film.
Most press only recently screened the movie in its entirety.)
Warner Bros. Pictures/WireImage/FilmMagic/Getty Images; design by Channing Smith
Unless you have a full-on existential crisis.
Or youre a Ken?
I’m so terrified of overhype, Rae says.
Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
Barbie means so much to so many people.
People also hate Barbie or aren’t interested in Barbie.
I honestly think whether you love or hate her, there’s something here for you.
Glamour: How would you describe theBarbiemovie?
Issa Rae:It’s self-aware, it’s self-deprecating.
I was thinking about some of my favorite movies, the defining movies for me growing up.
Greta Gerwig had a Barbie slumber party at Claridges in London before shooting began.
Greta organized the sleepover for all the Barbies to come.
The Kens could come, but they couldn’t spend the night.
I heard thatRyan Goslingsent a gift of someone playing bagpipes and singing theBravehearttheme.
There were competitive games.
America Ferrera’s very competitive.
It was extremely intimidating.
The cast, including yourself, is so stacked.
Tell me how the role came to be.
They said, Greta is doing theBarbiemovie, and she wants to meet with you.
And I was like, Oh, I love Greta.
She described being a hard-core fan ofInsecure,watching it live for five seasons.
I was very appreciative of that.
And then she started telling me about theBarbiemovie.
It’s kind of batshit.
I love that she said the movie is kind of batshit.
I was like, That’s so nice of you, but never and no, you wouldn’t.
Her words made sense to me, and I was excited to be a part of it.
Or that it was watermarked and dissolved after… Of course, it’s attributed to your log-in.
It really was an accident!
Because it was such a nothing page.
It was probably page two, and it just shut down.
I was like, Oh no.
I got an email telling me I was locked out and had to ask for a copy again.
They were like, Hey, just check that you don’t screenshot anything.
I’ve learned to never do that again.
How did you prepare to play President Barbie?
Did you study the mannerisms of world leaders?
I don’t even know if I can say this.
So, in a way, I just wanted to convey that sparkliness, that energetic nature.
In that way, it was the most fun, limber, fashionable president I could think of.
I was like, Well, I’m going to let myself go.
But then I realized Greta’sBarbieworld consists of all body types.
Im glad you brought that up.
Did you have those conversations with Greta about body image and representation?
That was so top of mind for her.
I saw that immediately on my first day when I was doing the dance sequence rehearsal.
There were so many different types of Barbies, and so many different types of Kens.
Some able-bodied, ages, genders.
Greta did her best to have a go at include everybody.
Barbie Land is perfect.
Everyone in Barbie Land is a perfect Barbie.
I found that so beautiful.
Almost everyone in the world is represented in some way here.
That’s not an easy piece.
I’m sure someone might be like, Where am I?
But know that there was such an effort made to have Barbie Land be inclusive.
The first Black Barbie, named Christie, was introduced in 1968.
What were your memories of Barbie growing up?
Did you feel represented?
I don’t care.
I was like, Okay, more toys, thank you.
But some kids would say, Oh, you’re still playing with Barbies?
You’re a baby.
So I would say, Oh no, I don’t.
Then it became cool to shit on Barbie.
They served as ways to role-play in various ways.
I never played with Christie.
I don’t think I knew about Christie until later.
It was just Barbie with blackface kind of, and it didn’t necessarily have Black features.
You were hyperaware that Ken was not Jewish.
There are not many blonde Jews, but in my world, blonde Ken/Peter was.
That’s so dope.
Did you have any storylines that you came up with for your Barbies?
I had90210Barbies, but I couldn’t watch90210.
My mom wouldn’t let me, but she still got me some of the Barbies.
I didn’t know their names.
I just knew they were in this show.
There was always a love triangle of some sort with my Barbies.
I loved businesses, so Barbie had a restaurant and there was chaos there.
It was just a lot of imagination.
Does that seem like an accurate parallel?
I completely get what you’re saying.
I think any world that is perfect may not be perfect for somebody else.
That’s part of it.
I love those parts sometimes, but there’s so much work to stay afloat.
You know how ducks float and you don’t see their feet pedaling?
That’s what I feel like all the time.
It’s just like, What’s next?
I don’t want people to see that necessarily.
It’s navigating that too.
We’re all going through different struggles, and we all have different perceptions.
My friend is a lawyer, and I think she’s doing trials all day.
She’s like, No, girl.
Most of my stuff is paperwork….
I think that’s just human nature.
We’re full of assumptions.
Does your President Barbie have a platform or specific causes that are important to her?
She has dance parties at least twice a day as well as universal free everything, like health care.
When we meet President Barbie, she’s signing a bill into law.
She’s all about good vibes, which is the most important thing to me as well.
Are there any hidden Easter eggs in your costumes?
There are more Easter eggs in the production design and set design, which I thought was absolutely fantastic.
Hopefully, upon the second or third watch, people will latch onto them and appreciate it.
What was your hair and makeup routine like each day?
You spend an hour in hair and makeup getting airbrushed so that your skin is even-toned and perfect.
It was the most even-toned I’ve ever looked in my life, but it felt gross.
That’s the fun part.
Who did you bond with the most on the film?
And who was the Ken to your President Barbie?
I loved meeting everybody, but I have to say it was such a pleasure to meetAlex Shipp.
She had my back in such a wonderful way.
Everybody had cast chairs, and for some reason mine didn’t have my name on it.
I wasn’t tripping.
I was like, Oh, maybe it’s because I come in and out of town.
I asked, Who did this?
And Alex said, I saw you didn’t have one, so I just did this.
The next day I had my name on a chair.
It was just that little act that meant so much.
I didn’t say anything about it.
I never vocalized it.
She just saw me in a way that I really appreciated.
And my Ken isScott Evans.
That’s bae right there.
Since then I’ve been in love.
