Ben Affleck and Olivia Colman Were Both Supposed to Appear in ‘Barbie’ In Scenes We Would Have Loved to See

The list of “almost, but not quite” Barbie cast members is extensive, but these two, admittedly, were unexpected: apparently Ben Affleck and Olivia Colman both originally had parts, but it ultimately didn’t work out.

Per Bustle, Helen Mirren—who took on the role as narrator of the film—recently told Variety that Colman was set to star opposite her as the film’s second narrator (a power duo if there ever was one). “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,” Mirren said. “She comes in and tries to take over the role of the narrator and I had to fight her off.”

Colman’s cameo ultimately ended up on the cutting room floor—but she wasn’t alone down there. On the February 15 episode of the “Happy, Sad, Confused” podcast, Michael Cera—who plays Alan and stars in Super Bowl commercials on the side—said that Affleck, too, was supposed to make a cameo.

Referring to his fight scene with the construction Kens in the movie, Cera said that he “wasn’t even supposed to fight in the movie” and added “It was supposed to be Ben Affleck. Am I allowed to say that?”

While “Ben wanted to do it,” Cera said, Affleck dropped out last minute because of prior commitments on the movie Air, which came out last year as well and which he starred in alongside close friend Matt Damon.

Affleck and Colman are in good company when it comes to actors who almost were in Barbie but, for whatever reason, it didn’t work out: Barbie casting director Allison Jones told Vanity Fair that Ben Platt, Bowen Yang, and Dan Levy were all supposed to be Kens, but, again, scheduling conflicts reared its ugly head. The film’s director Greta Gerwig also told Cinemablend that she had written a “specialty cameo” for Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet, but, again, busy schedules prevented it.

And Matt Bomer also auditioned for Barbie but walked away from the project: “I recorded it on my own, played a bunch of different Kens,” he told Vanity Fair of his remote audition. “I dressed differently for all of them.”