Michael Cera played the role of Allan in the Barbie movie, and he really stole the show in the few scenes he was in. The character was a sidekick to Ken, and while there are many different iterations of Ken, there’s only one Allan. His big claim to fame is that all of Ken’s clothes fit him, though we only see him in that stripey button down shirt and shorts until he joins forces with the Barbies. He is clearly a tortured guy, who seeks the approval of his friend Ken, and it’s fun when he gets his moment to shine in the film by taking on a group of construction worker Kens and gets back to Barbieland to help set things straight.
Michael Cera wasn’t originally supposed to carry that scene alone, though. The actor explained that Ben Affleck was originally cast in the movie and would have either fought as Allan’s stunt double, or maybe another Ken. The role wasn’t really clear, but Cera explained in a Q&A attended by The A.V. Club:
“I wasn’t even supposed to fight in the movie. Am I allowed to say what it was supposed to be? It was supposed to be Ben Affleck. Right? Am I allowed to say that?”
Cera didn’t offer many more details on Affleck’s character, but he went on to say:
“I think Ben wanted to do it, but he was directing his movie. They’re like, ‘Okay, Ben’s out, something has to happen here. So you’re gonna fight them.’ So I had to jump in with the stunt team. I had just gotten over COVID and they had me training, and I almost died. Just doing the warm up! I had to lay down in my trailer and they sent the nurse to see me, and I was sent home. So then we had a second rehearsal, and I learned it. That’s the story basically.”
Cera went on to talk about the violence of the scene and how that evolved while making the movie:
“That was never part of Allan’s journey. In the rehearsal, we did the thing where I murder the guy with the shovel and it was just a joke, and we were like ‘Greta’s not going to let me murder someone in the movie.’ And it’s in the movie!”
Much of that probably comes from Gerwig’s implicit trust in Cera, whom she previously said had a “deep understanding” of Allan. Gerwig explained at a previous Q&A:
“I remember right after you read the script and then we Zoomed, you said, ‘I sort of hope, like, Allan’s just like behind people slightly out of focus.’ And I was like, ‘That’s Allan!’”
The respect between the pair is mutual. At Thursday’s event, Cera remembered “the script being very visual,” but when he finally stepped onto the Barbie set, he said:
“I’ve never been so in complete disbelief about the production. I was like, ‘How much—how much money is this costing?’ I just couldn’t believe everything I was seeing. And then Greta being so calm and exuberant and inventive in the eye of a production that side was like, completely staggering to me. I was like, ‘Okay, this is going to be good. She knows what she’s doing.’”
He was right. The movie was great, and though the scene may have been hilarious with Affleck, it stood on its own with Cera.
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