Kate McKinnon Recalls The 1 Line That Piqued Her Interest In Weird Barbie Role

July 11, 2023
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It didn’t take much to convince Kate McKinnon to take on the role of “Weird Barbie” in the new Greta Gerwig-helmed film.

The former “Saturday Night Live” star appeared on SiriusXM’s “Jess Cagle Show” with the cast and director of the upcoming “Barbie” movie, and revealed the one line in the script that spoke to her.

“I read it, and the way the lines were written, there was one line that was like, ‘I can’t help you on account of the giddyup in my hip,’” McKinnon said. (Gerwig added that the line didn’t make the final cut of the film.)

“I was like, ‘Oh, [Gerwig] just wants me to do a cameo as myself. … I don’t have to stretch very far for this at all,’” McKinnon said as the cast laughed.

Kate McKinnon attends the world premiere of "Barbie" on July 9 in Los Angeles.
Kate McKinnon attends the world premiere of “Barbie” on July 9 in Los Angeles.

Rodin Eckenroth via Getty Images

McKinnon said the line “comes in the script in the moment when the protagonist meets the grizzled crone before entering the New World, and I thought, ‘You’ve not seen a grizzled crone that’s also a demented, avant-garde baby doll,’ and OK, great.”

“I have that in my back pocket,” the comedian continued. “I’ve been waiting, I’ve just been waiting for the camera to roll on that.”

Gerwig recalled one of her initial conversations about the role with McKinnon ― her longtime friend ― and it unfolded in a very McKinnon way.

“I do remember when I texted you about it and I was like, ‘Are you around to talk?’” Gerwig said, barely able to contain her laughter. “And you sent me a picture of your cat in the bathtub and you said, ‘I’m very busy.’”

“Then you were like, ‘Just kidding. I have nothing but time,’” the director added. “And your cat sort of had this expression, and I was like, ‘It’s already happening.’”

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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EFPcENoBiU?rel=0&enablejsapi=1]

McKinnon previously revealed in an interview with Time magazine that she “didn’t see myself in Barbie when I was younger,” and that she saw herself more “in an inflatable lobster.”

But she was intrigued by the way Gerwig and her partner Noah Baumbach’s “Barbie” script tackled the many ways that people can feel about the doll.

“It comments honestly about the positive and negative feelings,” McKinnon said. “It’s an incisive cultural critique.”

Gerwig and McKinnon go way back, as the two were friends and lived in the same dorm together while attending Columbia University.

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