Amy Schumer Reacts to Barbie’s Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig Getting Snubbed By Oscars 2024
Barbie is Kenough for Amy Schumer.
The comedian, who was previously set to take on the titular role in the film, reacted to star Margot Robbie being shut out of the Best Actress category at the 2024 Academy Awards, along with Greta Gerwig, who was omitted from the Best Director category.
"I didn't get out of my bed for two months," Amy joked on Watch What Happened Live With Andy Cohen Feb. 15, before noting, "All award shows have major problematic areas."
"Of all the things going on right now, this is not what I'm going to be picketing in the streets about," she added, "but I feel the love for that movie."
The Academy Awards caused a bit of a stir in January when Greta and Margot were left out of the two major categories. However, as the Barbie actress herself noted, she's not upset.
"There's no way to feel sad when you know you're this blessed," Margot said at a special SAG screening of the film on Jan. 30. "Obviously I think Greta should be nominated as a director, because what she did is a once-in-a-career, once-in-a-lifetime thing, what she pulled off, it really is."
While she and Greta won't be getting solo nominations at the Oscars, they are still in the running for other categories. Margot is nominated for Best Picture as a producer for Barbie, while the director is up for Best Adapted Screenplay.
As for Amy, she was first set to play the blonde doll in an earlier version of the film but exited the project in 2017 due to scheduling conflicts. But last year, the Trainwreck star clarified that it was also due to creative differences.
"They definitely didn't want to do it the way I wanted to do it," she told The Hollywood Reporter in March 2022, "the only way I was interested in doing it."
And the 42-year-old couldn't be happier to see the film thrive from the sidelines.
"But there's a new team behind and it looks like it's very feminist and cool," she added on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen in June, "So, I will be seeing that movie."
Keep reading to see who else didn't make it to Barbie Land.
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Seven years before Greta Gerwig's version of Barbie premiered, a movie based on the popular doll was already in the works at Sony, with the comedian attached to the project.
And while in 2017, she announced she wouldn't be able to star in the film due to scheduling conflicts, earlier this year, she revealed the real reason behind her exit.
"I think we said it was scheduling conflicts," she said during a June episode of Watch What Happens Live. "That's what we said. But it really was just like, creative differences. But there's a new team behind it and it looks like it's very feminist and cool, so I will be seeing this movie."
The Trainwreck star's sentiment echoes what she previously shared about the direction she realized the project was going in.
"They definitely didn't want to do it the way I wanted to do it, the only way I was interested in doing it," she told the Hollywood Reporter in March 2022.
Noting that she wanted Barbie to be an "inventor," she said the studio had the idea that a creation of hers would be heels made of Jell-O and later sent her a pair of Manolo Blahniks."
The idea that that's just what every woman must want, right there," she said, "I should have gone, ‘You've got the wrong gal.'"
After Amy's departure, the Devil Wears Prada alum signed up in 2018 to replace the comedian, with a set release date of 2020. But by the end of that year, Deadline confirmed that Anne was no longer attached to the project, which had made its way over to Warner Bros. with Margot Robbie as Barbie instead.
Margot, who serves both star and co-producer of Barbie, originally envisioned the Wonder Woman star to lead the Barbie world.
"Gal Gadot is Barbie energy," Margot told Vogue of the actress, who wasn't available for the part. "Because Gal Gadot is so impossibly beautiful, but you don't hate her for being that beautiful because she's so genuinely sincere, and she's so enthusiastically kind, that it's almost dorky. It's like right before being a dork."
Ahead of Barbie's premiere, the Lady Bird alum (and longtime collaborator of Greta's) revealed she was up for a special cameo in the film. Alas, she was busy shooting The Outrun in Scotland at the time.
"I was supposed to do a cameo because I live in London and they were [filming] there," she told People. "There was a whole character I was going to play—another Barbie. I was gutted I couldn't do it."
Saoirse wasn't the only one Greta was hoping would make a special appearance, as the director revealed she also had her eyes set on Lady Bird's Timothée Chalamet.
"I was also going to do a specialty cameo with Timmy, and both of them couldn't do it, and I was so annoyed," Greta told CinemaBlend. "But I love them so much. But it felt like doing something without my children. I mean, I'm not their mom, but I sort of feel like their mom."
The Schitt's Creek alum was unable to take on a role of a Ken due to the cast having to spend three months filming in London, the film's casting director Allison Jones told Vanity Fair.
The actor himself told People in January 2024, "Logistically could not make it work despite desperately trying to. So, yeah, I guess I was I was technically unavailable to do that."
He added, "Does it haunt me when I sleep at night Sometimes. It's not like it isn't like one of the biggest movies of all time. That was a tough, that was a tough day."
Another Ken that could've been? Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang was another actor who couldn't film, according to Allison.
And last but not least, Ben Platt rounded out the trio of Ken potentials, who, as Allison revealed, were "really bummed they couldn't do it."
The Glee alum felt quite the opposite about missing out on the role as Allan (which would later go to Michael Cera).
"Dear, dear Jonathan Groff was like, ‘I can't believe I'm typing this," Allison shared, "but I can't do Allan."
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