A Deleted Barbie Scene Would Have Overthrown Helen Mirren As Narrator
Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach's screenplay for "Barbie" is a little unconventional. Since most of the characters in the movie are either called Barbie or Ken, the script distinguishes between them by referring to them as "Barbie Margot" (referring to star Margot Robbie) or "Ken Ryan Gosling" (long before Gosling actually agreed to play Ken, a role he originally turned down). This name-dropping of actors into the script even extends to the narrator, whose lines are attributed not to "Narrator (V.O.)" but instead, "Helen Mirren (V.O.)".
It's certainly a good tactic if you're hoping to grab the attention of the specific actor you want for a role. Back in 2022, after the first trailer for "Barbie" debuted her voiceover work, Mirren told Vanity Fair that she was "fairly thrilled" to be involved in the film, and also revealed that she shot a cameo scene as herself in addition to recording the voiceover. At the time she declined to say what the scene involved, but Mirren has finally spilled the beans in an interview with Variety:
"It was a very funny scene with Olivia Colman sort of playing drunk and us clashing about who is the real grande dame of British actresses. She comes in and tries to take over the role of the Narrator and I had to fight her off."
Gerwig and Baumbach began working on the "Barbie" script not long after Colman won an Oscar for her tragically hilarious performance as Queen Anne in Yorgos Lanthimos' black comedy "The Favourite." That film centers around a love/hate triangle between three women, with Emma Stone's Abigail and Rachel Weisz's Sarah viciously vying for Anne's affections. It may well have been an inspiration behind Colman and Mirren's drunken battle for the title of Narrator, but their connection runs deeper than that.
Mirren and Colman are acting royalty
In a very literal sense. Both actresses have played more than one British monarch over the course of their careers, and they've both played the same role: that of the late Queen Elizabeth II. Mirren starred in Stephen Frears' 2006 film "The Queen," in which the head of state learns about the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and clashes with then-Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) over how it should be handled. More recently, Colman played Elizabeth II in the third and fourth seasons of "The Crown" (a show created by "The Queen" writer Peter Morgan). Mirren won an Oscar for her performance; Colman won a Golden Globe and a Primetime Emmy for hers.
This succession into the "grande dame" archetype that Mirren once mastered is emblematic of Colman's rapidly rising star, and how she's becoming the go-to actor for such roles. Many people were first introduced to her as the posh, passive-aggressive Godmother in "Fleabag," and she recently played the moldering-yet-intimidating figure of Miss Havisham in a BBC TV adaptation of "Great Expectations."
But as Colman apparently learned in the deleted "Barbie" scene, Mirren isn't ready to pass the torch. She's still using the torch, thank you very much. In 2013 she reprised the role of Queen Elizabeth II in the stage play "The Audience," first on London's West End and then on Broadway. More recently she played the titular role in the miniseries "Catherine the Great," and joined a different kind of royal family in the "Fast & Furious" franchise when she was cast as Queenie, the matriarch of the Shaw dynasty.
Helen Mirren isn't giving up her crown(s) any time soon. But if there's room in the world for more than one Barbie, there's surely room for more than one Narrator.