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At one point, there were talks that Dan Levy, of Schitt’s Creek fame, would join the cast of Barbie as a Ken. However, sadly, we never got to see the David Rose actor in the Mojo Dojo Casa House, and we never got to hear him say “Ew, Ken!” And guess what? He’s sad about it too, and explained why.
It’s not that Dan Levy didn’t want to be in the Mattel movie. In fact, he is a big fan of Greta Gerwig, and he wanted to be part of the billion-dollar blockbuster that is Barbie. However, he wasn’t able to simply because of scheduling issues, as he told People:
Logistically could not make it work despite desperately trying to. So, yeah, I guess I was I was technically unavailable to to do that.
While Levy didn’t specify which project took him away from Greta Gerwig’s movie, he’s been booked and busy with four projects that came out in the last year. In 2023, he was part of the casts of Sex Education (which Barbie’s Emma Mackey and Ncuti Gatwa were also in), and Haunted Mansion plus he was in one episode of The Idol. He was also busy writing, directing, producing and starring in his film on the 2024 movie schedule, Good Grief– which is currently available through a Netflix subscription. So, it makes sense that “logistically” he wasn’t able to embrace his Ken-ergy in Barbie Land.
However, even though you won’t see Levy as a Ken if you watch the movie with a Max subscription, you better believe he’s praising it as many Barbie reviews did in July. Speaking about how much he loves Gerwig and the film in general, the Emmy winner said:
I think Greta had such a like wonderfully bizarre and and magical aesthetic idea of of what that movie was. I would have loved to play in her world. I think the I think she is one of the great, young auteurs of our time.
He also seemed to believe that Barbie was one of the best films of 2023, and as he explained, saying no was really hard. Reflecting back on having to turn down a role as Ken, Dan Levy said:
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.
I bet that was a tough day! Not only would that have been a fun film to work on, but it’s also a cultural phenomenon.
It turns out, Dan Levy isn’t the only actor who wasn’t able to play a Ken. Matt Bomer said no to Barbie too. The White Collar vet said no to the project, and, it was because he didn’t want to spend a lot of time away from his family. Then, like Levy, he ended up working on other big projects – Maestro and Fellow Travellers – and he has no regrets about not doing the film inspired by the iconic doll.
Similar to my feelings about Matt Bomer, I do really wish we could have seen Dan Levy as a Ken. That would have been iconic. However, I totally understand why he wasn’t able to. Now, while you can’t see him in Barbie, you can catch his feature-directorial debut, Good Grief, which he also wrote, produced and starred in, on Netflix, and that’s pretty fantastic!