‘I was definitely going to be Weird Barbie’

Saoirse Ronan revealed she’d been cast in the Barbie movie but a scheduling conflict led to her having to exit the film. 

The actress shared the role she was supposed to play in the blockbuster film during an interview at the Variety Studio presented by Audible at the Sundance Film Festival.

‘I was definitely going to be a Weird Barbie,’ she said. ‘I don’t know how to take that. I would have been with Kate McKinnon, so that would have been nice. I had a scene but didn’t ever get to do it, and it wasn’t in the movie.

Saoirse – who has immense pride at being Irish – was asked what the scene was going to be and she admitted she wasn’t quite sure. 

‘It was weird,’ she said. ‘I think I’d be the strange girl who talked to herself and always had her pet dog with her and always talked to the dog and wouldn’t look at anyone.

The Mary Queen of Scots star goes way back with Barbie director and co-screenwriter Greta Gerwig, 40.

She starred in the director’s 2017 film playing the lead character, who was based on Gerwig as a teenager.

Gerwig has previously admitted that she’d like to revisit Ronan’s character in Lady Bird, and the the Lovely Bones actress responded positively to the idea.

‘She’s based on Greta so, does she make Barbie? I don’t know. We did discuss while we were making the film that we would love to revisit it,’ she explained.

‘I’ve heard she’s started talking about it. I’ll do everything with her for as long as she’ll have me.’

The Little Woman star is at Sundance to premiere her new film Outrun, which is based on the novel of the same name by Amy Liptrot.

The story is about Rona, a recovering alcoholic who returns home to the Orkney Islands in Scotland after spending a hard-living decade in London to escape the temptations that led to her addictions. 

She helps out on her father’s sheep farm, where she isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty.

‘I delivered seven lambs,’ she told Variety proudly. ‘That was very terrifying. I didn’t know if I was going to kill the lamb as I was pulling ’em out.’

She first became aware of the project during the COVID-19 lockdowns when her parter Jack Lowden, 33, handed her the book. A Scotsman himself, he produced the project.

‘We were in lockdown a few years ago and he said, “You need to read this because this is the role you need to play.” I instantly fell in love with Amy’s writing and how she captured the struggle of addiction,’ she told the outlet.

She also spoke about the challenges of playing a role that is based on a real person that you actually know. 

‘You feel like there’s a lot of responsibility on your shoulders. We delve into her relationships with her family and friends, some of whom she lost along the way. To protect that while also still authentically showcasing her life was difficult to find the balance initially.’