Becoming the highest-grossing film of 2023 and crossing the $1 billion mark, it’s hard to argue that “Barbie” wasn’t one of last year’s most significant cultural cinematic landmarks, even if it missed out at the most recent Oscars. Many actors have revealed they were part of the film, only to be cut, Olivia Colman, Saoirse Ronan, and possibly more, but there was another actually in the movie who didn’t really receive her moment.
British actress Lucy Boynton, in the recent “The Greatest Hits” indie, has reflected on one of her major scenes that was cut in the film. Boynton’s Barbie variant, inspired by famous French philosopher and writer Marcel Proust, was pushed into the film’s background after her scenes were cut.
The actress was apparently aware of what the issue were in early test screenings, and she told The Spotlight With Jessica Shaw (via IndieWire) that audiences simply weren’t getting the jokes, Proust seemingly being too erudite for most viewers, and the gags went right over their head.
“Proust Barbie is only softly in the background of the ‘Barbie’ film because, in the test screenings, it turns out that contemporary audiences don’t know who [Marcel Proust] is, so the joke doesn’t quite land,” Boynton explained, expressing her disappointment. “It’s a little bit of a heartbreaker that we are kind of losing touch with that history, but hopefully, this will then be a trigger for people to read up on Marcel Proust. It was a shocker.”
Marcel Proust was, of course, a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental seven-volume novel Remembrance of Things Past and is regarded as one of the most influential authors of the 20th Century. These days, he might be best known in pop culture for Vanity Fair’s Proust questionnaire.
Barbie filmmaker Greta Gerwig may have gotten away with a lot of obscure references, but she also admitted to IndieWire last year that it was probably too odd to keep in the final edit of the film. “I think I got most of them in there,” she said of all the obscure references she tried to sandwich into the film. “We did have a more extensive thing that we were doing with a doll that had never been made and should never be made, which was Proust Barbie, but that was too strange for everybody.”
The future of the “Barbie” franchise is a bit up in the air. Initially, there were signs that the film would be a one-and-done standalone installment, but director and co-writer Greta Gerwig seemingly changed her mind throughout its lifespan, hinting recently that if they find the right idea for a sequel, she is willing to consider returning to do it. But it’s worth mentioning that Gerwig is busy with new “Narnia” films, a potential two-partner at Netflix for the foreseeable future.
Likewise, Robbie is also juggling many projects with her bustling production company, LuckyChap. That company is behind films like the “Tank Girl” remake, an adaption of the popular video game “The Sims,” another comic book project “Avengelyne,” with Olivia Wilde set to direct, and most recently, an adaptation of the famous Parker Brothers board game, “Monopoly.” If a “Barbie” sequel ever happens, expect it to be some years away.