Amy Schumer Reveals the Real Reason She Dropped Out of ‘Barbie’ Movie

Amy Schumer is opening up about her exit from the original version of the upcoming live-action Barbie movie. Before Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling signed on to the highly-anticipated movie from Greta Gerwig, Schumer was attached as the lead of writer Hilary Winston’s script based on the line of iconic Mattel dolls. In 2017, Schumer dropped out of the project, and in the wake of her exit admitted to trying help improve the script before ultimately parting due to creative differences. 

Schumer weighed in on the upcoming version of Barbie during Thursday’s episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, joking that she left the original project behind because “they said I was too thin.” She continued of the Robbie-led film, “I can’t wait to see the movie. I think it looks awesome,” adding of her own experience, “I think we said it was scheduling conflicts. That’s what we said. But it really was just like, creative differences. But there’s a new team behind it and it looks like it’s very feminist and cool, so I will be seeing this movie.” Asked by host Andy Cohen if the first iteration “didn’t feel feminist and cool,” the Trainwreck star responded simply, “Yeah.”

Schumer previously told The Hollywood Reporter in 2022 that there were a host of creative differences that ultimately led to her leaving the project behind. “They definitely didn’t want to do it the way I wanted to do it, the only way I was interested in doing it,” she told the outlet at the time. The comedian confirmed that it was her idea to have her character be an inventor, but that the studio wanted her invention to be a shoe made out of Jell-O. She recalled, “The idea that that’s just what every woman must want, right there, I should have gone, ‘You’ve got the wrong gal.’”

Robbie, who is also a producer behind Barbie, told Vogue in May that bringing on Gerwig and her collaborator Noah Baumbach was crucial when it came to bringing the movie to life in the way she felt it should be. “We of course would want to honor the 60-year legacy that this brand has,” Robbie said. “But we have to acknowledge that there are a lot of people who aren’t fans of Barbie. And in fact, aren’t just indifferent to Barbie. They actively hate Barbie. And have a real issue with Barbie. We need to find a way to acknowledge that.” Barbie hits theaters July 21.