With the Oscars fast approaching, the cast of “Barbie” is on one final press tour to drum up hype for its eight nominations. And oh boy, the secrets that have tumbled out of their mouths on this latest go-around. The best new story? At a live Q&A for an episode of the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, Michael Cera revealed that Allan’s fight scene as he tries to skip Kenland shortly before the film’s third act wasn’t even supposed to happen. In fact, Greta Gerwig had another actor in mind to square off against the Kens at work. Read on to discover who that was.
READ MORE: Oscars Deliver Diverse Noms As ‘Barbie’ Snubs Set Social Media On Fire
“Yeah, I wasn’t even supposed to fight in the movie,” Cera told “HSC” host Josh Horowitz at the Q&A. “Am I allowed to say what was supposed to be? It was supposed to be Ben Affleck. Am I allowed the say that?” Gerwig wanted Affleck for the scene, but he was too busy shooting “Air” at the time. “I think Ben wanted to do it but he was directing his movie, but [Gerwig] didn’t find that out until the eleventh hour,” the actor continued. So that’s when Gerwig told him, “‘Okay, Ben’s out, something has to happen here, so you’re gonna fight them.'”
And training for that brief fight scene didn’t go well for Cera, considering he was recovering from COVID at the time. “So I had to jump in with the stunt team,” Cera went on. “I had just gotten over COVID, and they had me training, and I almost died just doing the warm-up. I had to lie down in my trailer and they sent the nurse to see me, and I was sent home. So then we had a second rehearsal and I learned it, that’s the story, basically.”
Another juicy tidbit: one of the best parts of the fight scene, where Allan chokes a Ken to death with a shovel, wasn’t even a planned gag. “In the rehearsal, we did the thing where I murder the guy with the shovel and it was like a joke. I was like, ‘Greta’s not gonna let me murder someone here,’ and it’s in the movie,” Cera quipped. As the rest of the “Barbie” cast part of the Q&A laughed, Horowitz joked that Allan was a “stone-cold killer,” with America Ferrara saying she had to tell her five-year-old that the Ken supposedly killed was simply sleeping.
So would Ben Affleck’s planned cameo have been a better move in “Barbie” than Allan’s violent faceoff? That’s doubtful, as Cera’s small role thrived from quirky bits like that, making Allan a little more complicated than the only male non-Ken in Barbieland. But maybe Affleck will show up in “Barbie 2,” should a sequel ever happen (let’s hope not).
The 96th annual Academy Awards are on March 10. Watch the Q&A for “Happy Sad Confused” with the “Barbie” cast below.