Although she’d originally cited scheduling conflicts as the reason for opting out of the upcoming Barbie movie, Amy Schumer is now saying “creative differences” prompted her decision, claiming the original script was not “feminist and cool” enough for her taste.
The star had told Variety back in 2017: “Sadly, I’m no longer able to commit to Barbie due to scheduling conflicts. The film has so much promise, and Sony and Mattel have been great partners. I’m bummed, but look forward to seeing Barbie on the big screen.”
But Schumer told Andy Cohen this week on Watch What Happens Live, “I think we said it it was scheduling conflicts. 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.
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Schumer had been attached to the project back in 2016 when Sony was developing it based on a script by Hilary Winston. Barbie later picked up her toys and moved to Warner Bros., with a new script co-written by director Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach.
As Schumer joked during the Cohen interview, “They said I was too thin.” She responded with a succinct “Yeah” when Cohen asked her if the original Sony version “didn’t feel feminist and cool.”
Schumer hinted at these creative differences last year when she expressed her frustration to Variety. The actor wanted the Barbie character to be an “inventor” but was disappointed when she was asked by the studio to “invent” a shoe made out of Jell-O. Schumer was quoted as saying: “The idea that that’s just what every woman must want, right there, I should have gone, ‘You’ve got the wrong gal.
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“Barbie” makes its debut in theaters on July 21, starring Margot Robbie in the title role and Ryan Gosling as her boyfriend Ken. The supporting cast includes John Cena, Michael Cera, Will Ferrell, Ncuti Gatwa, Simu Liu, Dua Lipa, Emma Mackey, Kate McKinnon, and Issa Rae. It’s been described by Garth Franklin of Dark Horizons as “a gloriously garishly pink-packed fantasy comedy that both pays loving tribute to and satirises its subject.”