Former Oscars head writer Bruce Vilanch weighed in on the Barbie Oscars snub debacle with a bizarre take. According to him, Margot Robbie wasn’t snubbed by the Oscars because Ryan Gosling’s role was much more difficult than hers.
When the Oscar nominations were first released, there was much outrage over the fact that Robbie and Greta Gerwig didn’t receive nominations for Best Actress and Best Director, respectively. The pair had gained recognition and nominations at nearly every other major awards show, and both were perceived as shoo-ins for their respective categories, making the Oscars’ decision surprising. However, Barbie was nominated for Best Picture, which included Margot as the producer and Gerwig as the director. Additionally, America Ferrera received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress, while Gosling was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
The conversation about the snubs was overblown because Barbie, Robbie, and Gerwig were all recognized by the Oscars, and the movie’s legacy is far more significant than this year’s awards show. While it wasn’t quite worth the outrage, most can admit that Robbie and Gerwig likely should have been recognized individually and that some degree of bias against female-led films was at least partly responsible for the omission. However, Vilanch had a very different explanation for Robbie’s omission.
Apparently, the role of Barbie is an easy one
According to Vilanch, Robbie wasn’t actually snubbed for Best Actress. In an interview with Yahoo Entertainment, he discussed the supposed reason for Gosling being nominated for an Oscar while Robbie wasn’t. Vilanch claimed, “Ryan Gosling had a more difficult role than Margot Robbie. Ken is a hard nut to crack.” He continued, “Barbie is much easier to play.”
He also made sure to mention that Robbie was already nominated once for I, Tonya, so that’s proof that “it’s not like they [The Academy] all hate Margot Robbie.” If he was so convinced Robbie’s role was undeserving of an Oscar, it’s unclear why he brought up I, Tonya, as if her being nominated in the past means she doesn’t need to be nominated for a completely unrelated role. On top of that, it’s strange to hear someone within the industry simplifying roles down to “easy” or “hard.” Do we really go around judging roles that we’ve never played as “easy” now?
Yes, roles can vary in complexity and demand, and perhaps playing Barbie isn’t as mentally or physically tolling as playing a role like, for example, the Joker. However, in this case, Vilanch talks about two comparable roles in the same movie. On top of that, he provides no explanation for how he reached the conclusion that Ken is hard to portray and Barbie is easy. While one shouldn’t assume either role was easy, it’s quite clear that Barbie is a far more complex character than Ken.
In the movie, Barbie is searching for her true identity. She wants to understand who she is and why she was even created. Amid the film’s humor and vibrancy, Robbie very subtly but poignantly captured Barbie’s struggles to understand what it truly means to be a woman while dodging what the world thinks she should be. She reflected on the struggles of so many women to understand who they are and how they should feel amid all the world’s noise. Robbie captures what it is to be a woman, and it can’t be an easy role because being a woman is not easy. It’s an especially difficult role because women typically aren’t allowed to get so real and vulnerable, and one can imagine it’s not easy to dig deep into those feelings knowing the whole world will see it.
Ken was likely a challenging role for Gosling to portray, as well. However, Vilanch is missing the whole point of Barbie if he thinks Ken is more complex than Barbie. Ken is purposefully written to be shallow. He has identity and insecurity issues, too, but he’s not willing to explore them. For a large portion of the movie, he’s content for his whole identity to revolve around being a man and being in love with Barbie.
One character is jumping through all the hoops of society’s expectations and biases, while the other is sitting back and enjoying the patriarchal society that was built for him. Which one sounds like a harder role to embody?
(featured image: Warner Bros.)
