Emma Mackey cast in ‘Barbie’ for lookalike joke that got cut

Margot Robbie has said that Emma Mackey was essentially cast in Barbie for a lookalike joke that never made the cut.

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The actress, who plays the titular character in Greta Gerwig’s upcoming film, said in a new interview that for years she has been compared to the Sex Education star on looks.

Robbie told Buzzfeed in the latest instalment of its ‘Puppies interviews’ series, which she took part in with her Barbie co-star Ryan Gosling, that she would just say thank you to fans who would tell her how much they enjoyed her in Sex Education.

The mix-up, Robbie said, led to the idea of casting Mackey in Barbie.

“[Mackey] plays one of the Barbies in the movie pretty much because Greta and I thought it would be funny. We were gonna do this whole joke about us looking similar,” Robbie said.

But the joke didn’t make the cut because “once we got all dressed up as our Barbies, we were kind of like, ‘We don’t actually look that similar,'” Robbie said. “Like, when she’s got her brown hair and I’ve got my blonde hair, we don’t look that similar, so we didn’t put that joke in the movie.”

Last year, Mackey addressed the comparisons between her and Robbie, saying that she doesn’t “mind” them but wants to “move past that”.

Gerwig’s upcoming live-action movie about the fashion dolls made by Mattel is released in UK and US cinemas on July 21. The director co-wrote the film her partner Noah Baumbach.

The movie follows Barbie (Robbie) as she lives in Barbie Land with Ken (Gosling) and other Barbies and Kens. Their lives are disrupted one day when Barbie decides to take a trip out into the real world.

In other recent Barbie news, Sam Smith has been announced as featuring in the film’s soundtrack – and will be representing the Kens in the film with their song.

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