This Barbie loved Barbie.
Anne Hathaway opened up during a recent interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast about the Barbie movie she almost joined in 2017 after Amy Schumer stepped away from the role. Though it never panned out, Hathaway admitted it’s a “lucky thing” that the movie didn’t make it out of development.
“Imagine that version, that much energy, that much anticipation, that much emotion, but it’s not the right version,” she said of the 2017 project.
She went on to praise Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie’s version, which netted $1.4 billion in the box office and received nine Golden Globe nominations.
“Margot is just sublime, period. What she is doing as a creative person and a producer is so exciting and inspiring,” Hathaway said. “And the mythic giants they toppled with [Barbie] that have kept certain narratives in place that have not allowed opportunities to develop for so many people. They ran straight through it, dancing, sparkling!”
Her praise didn’t end there.
The Oscar-winning actress added that Robbie’s take on Barbie was, in her words, “the best possible version” of the story.
“Just as a cinema-goer and just as a woman in Hollywood since I was a kid, I’m thrilled by the development,” she said. “If I believed that the version I was attached to could have done that, yeah, I might feel differently about it, but I genuinely think their [film] was the best possible version. So it’s actually very easy to just be thrilled and happy [for them].”
The previous version of the film was still in early development when Hathaway was considering the role. At the time, Deadline reported that Alethea Jones was in the running to direct and Oceans Eight writer Olivia Milch was brought on to rewrite the script.
The outlet also reported that the film was promised a “huge marketing push from Sony and its partner Mattel,” something we now know to be very true considering the massive media blitz that surrounded the summer blockbuster this year.
Fortunately, for Hathaway, there’s no hard feelings.
“I’m also a person who loves watching women kill it. I just do, I just love it. And also, to do so well, so undeniably that they actually had to write new records, come on!” she said. “I think it’s probably going to make things better.”