The upcoming Barbie movie has continued to gain everyone’s attention, for a plethora of exciting reasons, but with such an expansive cast, I feel as though it’s been easy for some players to have slipped by unnoticed. I want to talk about one Barbie in particular: Lawyer Barbie, played by none other than the fantastic Sharon Rooney.
I first discovered Rooney in high school, when I was going through a Britpop/E4 phase and found the show My Mad Fat Diary. Rooney played the show’s heroine, Rae Earl, a 16-year-old girl who’s just left a psychiatric hospital and just wants to lead a “normal” teenage life. Her most pressing insecurity is her relationship with her weight, and how others treat her because of it. But even when the going gets rough, Rae is consistently a sharp, witty, and incredibly real protagonist to follow—largely thanks to Rooney’s fantastic, seemingly effortless screen presence.
Unlike a lot of shows with plus-sized characters, MMFD stood out because Rae was multifaceted, and she never got reduced to a stereotype. She was hilarious, yes, and sometimes she could be clumsy, but she was also a million other things that made her one of the most well-written teenage characters I’ve ever seen on TV. Though I couldn’t exactly relate to everything shown on the show (most obviously being able to legally go to pubs with your friends before 21), I took a lot of comfort in Rae’s story, and by proxy how well Sharon Rooney was able to tell this story.
What always bummed me out, though, was how little I saw of Rooney following this show. Though she’s gone on to book several steady TV roles, and a few notable film roles (including Tim Burton’s 2019 adaptation of Dumbo), none quite put her in the spotlight like MMFD did. That’s a shame, since Rooney has an incredibly dynamic range, which has largely gone underutilized.
Thankfully, Greta Gerwig has eyes, and with those eyes she’s picked up on Rooney’s talent and range. While we didn’t get a shot of Lawyer Barbie prominently featured in the most recent trailer, I’m still over the moon that Rooney was cast in a role in this film. Barbie‘s shaping up to be one of the hottest films of the year (next to its twin sibling Oppenheimer, of course), and Rooney is absolutely the kind of actress who can bring it all the way there and then some. I truly can’t wait to see what energy she brings to this film!
(Featured Image: Warner Bros.)
