Sharon Stone Details Her Failed ‘Barbie’ Movie Pitch, Says Studio Execs ‘Didn’t Think Barbie Should Be Powerful’: ‘What Is Wrong With You?’
Sharon Stone surprised fans in January when she revealed on Instagram that she tried and failed to pitch a “Barbie” movie in the 1990s, decades before Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie would make their own adaptation to the tune of $1.4 billion worldwide (the highest-grossing film of 2023) and eight Academy Award nominations. Stone said she got “laughed out of the studio” back then. She recently dropped some new info about her axed “Barbie” movie while visiting Dana Carvey and David Spade’s “Fly On The Wall” podcast.
“I went to the studio to try and make Barbie in the 1990s with a producer, a friend of mine, and I had the then-CEO of Mattel on my side. We got thrown out of the studio,” Stone recalled. “They were like, ‘Why would you take this American icon and try to destroy it? What is wrong with you?’ I got a lecture and an escort to the door.”
More from Variety
Stone was asked what she had in store for her “Barbie” movie, and she answered by explaining how the film would’ve started.
“We had it so the opening scene would be Barbie pulling up to Mattel in her Barbie car and secret service come out and their feet are as big as the car,” Stone said. “They escort her into Mattel and everybody falls aside because she’s the most important member of Mattel. All the big people are chasing her around and kissing her ass because she’s the queen of Mattel and it’s about the power of being Barbie and what Barbie could do in the world because she’s so powerful. But they didn’t think Barbie should be powerful.”
Stone is far from the only actor to try and fail to get a “Barbie” movie off the ground. Before Gerwig and Robbie perfected their take at Warner Bros., both Amy Schumer and Anne Hathaway attempted a “Barbie” movie at Sony Pictures. Schumer was originally tapped to play the Mattel doll but revealed in 2022 that it was “creative differences” that caused her exit. She said Robbie’s movie looked “very feminist and cool,” which her version was not.
Hathaway stepped in to replace Schumer as Barbie in a film about the character getting kicked out of Barbieland for not being perfect enough. Australian filmmaker Alethea Jones, best known for helming the comedy “Fun Mom Dinner,” was in talks to direct Hathaway’s film, which sources described at the time as in the vein of “Splash,” “Enchanted” and “Big.” The movie never got made, and Hathaway isn’t mad about it.
“What’s so exciting about what Greta and Margot and that phenomenal team [did] is they hit a bullseye,” Hathaway said last year on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast. “The bullseye caused the entire world to reach this level of ecstasy. Now imagine that version … that much energy, that much anticipation, that much emotion … but it’s not the right version. I actually think of it as a lucky thing [it didn’t get made].”
“Margot is sublime,” Hathaway continued. “The mythic giants they toppled with [‘Barbie’] that have kept certain narratives in place that have not allowed opportunities to develop for so many people … they ran straight through it! Just as a cinema-goer and as a woman in Hollywood since I was a kid, I’m thrilled by the development. If I believed that the version I was attached to could have done that, I might feel differently about it, but I genuinely think their film was the best possible version.”
Gerwig and Robbie’s “Barbie” is now available to stream on Max. Listen to Stone’s full appearance on the “Fly on the Fall” podcast here.
Best of Variety
From 'The Idea of You' to 'Apples Never Fall': The Best Book-to-Screen Adaptations to Read This Year
Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
