We’re just a few days away from the long-awaited Barbie movie hitting theaters. The buzz surrounding this one has been pretty epic and while everybody is obviously looking forward to seeing Margot Robbie’s Barbie, there is just as much interest in the films Kens, and Simu Liu has given CinemaBlend a sneak peek at just what is going on between his Ken and the one played by Ryan Gosling.
A significant portion of the Barbie movie cast is made up of men playing Ken and women playing Barbie because that's just who exists in her world. In the trailer for Barbie, we see the two Kens get into it on the beach over something. While everything in Barbieland is bright and happy, these two Kens clearly don’t get along. Speaking with CinemaBlend’s Hannah Saulic, Simu Liu revealed that the animosity is apparently all due to a backflip. He explained…
I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but between Ryan and I, one of us can backflip and one of us can’t. This becomes a very major plot point in the movie, right? And the fact that one of them, again, not going to say who, one of the Ken’s can backflip, makes the other Ken, whoever he may be, really, really jealous. ‘Cause it’s kinda really cool to know how to backflip, especially because it impresses Barbies.
The marketing for the Barbie movie that has focused on Ryan Gosling has all been about the fact that he is “just Ken” because, in the world of Barbie, Ken is nothing without Barbie. It seems that in the film, that’s very much the case, as the Kens sole purpose in life is to impress Barbies, so when one of them can do something that might make him more appealing than the others, it leads to animosity.
And while Simu Liu isn’t saying, it’s totally his Ken that can do the backflip, right? I mean, in the movie they could make anything work, but Gosling’s Ken is clearly the one in the trailer looking angry and jealous, so he is almost certainly the one who can’t backflip. And to be fair, Simu Liu is right, being able to backflip is pretty cool and those of us who can’t do it are probably all a little jealous of those that can.
The only thing funnier than two Kens getting into it over a backflip is the fact that Simu Liu says this fact makes for an important plot point in the film. It's an incredibly superficial thing, but then, that appears to be the crux of the whole film. Barbie starts out as something fluffy and superficial, but we can tell there's a lot more going on in the movie beyond that.
Ryan Gosling’s Ken is clearly as important a part of the story of Barbie as Margot Robbie’s title character The fact that nobody cares about Ken is part of Ken's story. Based on some early reactions to Barbie it sounds like he may even steal the movie a bit. We’ll find out when Barbie hits theaters on Friday.
