Why did Dan Levy say no to the role of Ken in ‘Barbie?’

It is 2024 and while misogynistic jokes are yet to end, blessed-with-brain-cells people no longer hide their disgust over such tasteless humor. I am, of course, talking about Barbie, Jo Koy, and the Golden Globes. But Koy, with his sorry-but-not-really-sorry apology, is not the only one regretting his decision regarding Barbie.

Last year, months before Greta Gerwig’s epic creation was set to hit theaters, rumors flew that Schitt’s Creek star Dan Levy was on the list of potential Kens for the film. But the short list of actors who joined Ryan Gosling’s “Beach Ken” were Ncuti Gatwa, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Simu Liu, Scott Edans, and John Cena. Even before its release, faith in Barbie was absolute — though it bypassed every single expectation — so any actor saying no to the film seemed impossible, so the rumor was allowed to rest.

But now, months after the film took over the globe and gave stiff competition to Oppenheimer, Levy confirmed that not only was the role offered to him and was almost finalized, but he also turned it down — a decision that still “haunts” him at night.

So, why, why did he say no to Barbie, which Dan Levy admitted on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, was the “biggest movie on the planet?”

Levy is currently busy promoting his Netflix film, Good Grief, which he directed, wrote, and stars in. And in his promotional spree, he is openly expressing his regret over saying no to Barbie.

In a chat with USA Today, he shared that the reason was scheduling conflicts – he was already working on something else at the time.

“I was up for Allan. Love Michael Cera, so very happy for him. It was just also a wonderful audition process, too, because I didn’t know anything about the movie and I got (a little bit of) the script and had to figure out what exactly was going on. You’ve seen the movie: Just getting two pages of that script, you look at it and think, “Yeah, I don’t know how to play this, but I guess I’ll make a choice and just go with that”.”

To People magazine, Levy admitted that he was “desperately trying” to fit Ken into his schedule as he finds Gerwig’s “wonderfully bizarre and and magical aesthetic idea” of the film. But alas, fate had other plans.

“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.”

Fine, we didn’t get Daniel Joseph Levy as Ken, but his directorial debut, Good Grief, is on Netflix and it is one rollercoaster of emotions, love, and acceptance, a combo that needed a strong, natural performer like the actor leading it.

What is Dan Levy’s new movie, Good Grief, about?

Good Grief follows Levy’s Marc, who is overwhelmingly in love with his husband, Oliver. But destiny had different plans for the couple — Oliver tragically dies in an accident, leaving Marc to pick up the pieces of their life and live with the dreams they planned to fulfill together. But love and grief, complicated feelings that don’t do well together, don’t allow Marc to process his loss, especially when new revelations expose that his husband and his friends’ lives weren’t exactly how they portrayed them to be.