Issa Rae, better known as President Barbie, said she didn’t like shooting a particular moment in this summer’s smash hit.
Rae told the Hollywood Reporter that shooting the “Barbie” party dance sequence was “the worst day of my life.”
Rae, who met with the cast of her TV program “Rap Sh!t” to make Grammy predictions, told the outlet how she felt as the ensemble danced to what would become Dua Lipa’s song, “Dance the Night.”
“Dancing to it was my worst nightmare.” She told THR, “It was the worst day of my life.” “I had the finest day of my life on the set. It was exciting, and then, on the first day, I had to learn the choreography for the next day’s filming. “And it was horrible.”
She stated that the song was incomplete during production, so director Greta Gerwig had to film the sequence with the ensemble dancing to the instrumental version.
“Greta (Gerwig) said, ‘Oh, it’s going to be a Dua Lipa song.’ But we just had the instrumental, so I asked, “What the f— is this? “What am I dancing to?” she joked with THR.
Although the rest of the actors had enough time to practice the dance, Rae has previously said that she was forced into the scene at the last minute. She made a similar statement in a July 2023 interview with E! News.
“It was terrifying; it was the worst day of my life,” she joked with E! News. “But I’m glad that it worked out.”
She stated that she had “cried afterward.”
Gerwig informed the newspaper that she discovered too late that President Barbie “needs a solo” in the sequence.
“Due to scheduling, we had been practicing the dance for a long time, but I was like, ‘Well, President Barbie needs a solo,’ and (Rae) was like, ‘Okay, when am I going to learn it?'” And I said, ‘Right now!'” According to Gerwig. “And she did, she did it great, and she’s such a good dancer.”
Despite her trepidation, she went on to say that Rae was “amazing” in the scenario.
“Honestly, I felt enthusiastic, and I wanted President Barbie to have a solo,” Gerwig told the site. “That is it. “She crushed it.”
Lipa’s big single, as well as three other songs from the film — Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice’s “Barbie World,” Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” and Ryan Gosling’s “I’m Just Ken” — have all received Grammy nominations for best song composed for visual media. Rihanna’s song “Lift Me ” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is also nominated.
Several other “Barbie” actresses, including Margot Robbie, have dance credits. Robbie has danced in numerous past films, including “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and “Babylon.” Gosling notably performed in the dance-heavy “La La Land,” and Simu Liu stated on TikTok that before becoming a Disney star in “Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings,” he was a competitive dancer.
“Long before I ever used the ten rings, your boy was competing in hip-hop competitions with his college dance crew,” he stated in an email. “Appreciate @Barbie Movie for bringing me back to my roots.”
Rae told The Hollywood Reporter that she hopes Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice’s song “Barbie World” wins a Grammy.
“I want ‘Barbie World’ to win because I didn’t have to dance to that,” she told THR.
