With a few mystifying teasers and less than two months until the premiere of the live-action “Barbie” film, audiences still don’t know exactly how the film will unfold, according to ‘Variety’.
The production team, however, has started sharing details of the making of the film — including how they caused an international pink paint shortage.
In a recent ‘Architectural Digest’ profile with production designer Sarah Greenwood, set decorator Katie Spencer and director Greta Gerwig, reports ‘Variety’, the group explain that they set out “to capture what was so ridiculously fun” about Barbie’s world, especially Barbie’s Dreamhouse.
“I wanted the pinks to be very bright, and everything to be almost too much,” Gerwig said, according to ‘Variety’. She shared that “the ‘kid-ness’ was paramount” — evoking the feeling of never forgetting “what made (her) love Barbie” as a young girl.
“Why walk down stairs when you can slide into your pool? Why trudge up stairs when you take an elevator that matches your dress?” said Gerwig.
To achieve that whimsy, Barbie’s world needed to become just that — Barbie’s world. The only way, ‘Variety’ notes, the production team believed they could achieve the task was to create a world of pink props, sets, clothes and anything that was placed within the film’s frame.
That’s when Greenwood knew she needed to obtain that signature shade from the paint company Rosco until there was nothing left. “The world ran out of pink,” said the production designer.
Before running Rosco out of pink paint, Greenwood, Gerwig and the team built a set on the Warner Bros lot in London, pulling inspiration from the Palm Springs’ Kaufmann House, San Francisco Queen Anne Victorian manse, Wayne Thiebaud’s paintings, as well as film history’s “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” and Gene Kelly’s “An American in Paris”.
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