Director Greta Gerwig’s new Barbie movie needed so much pink paint while building a set that it drained the paint company’s global supply, as officials worked to make the pink color too pop, necessitating large quantities of paint.
In their interview with Architectural Digest, Gerwig and the film’s production designer, Sarah Greenwood, talk about building Barbieland, which is painted almost entirely pink, from life-size versions of the doll’s famous “dream house,” to roads and lampposts .
In the interview, the six-time Oscar nominee, Greenwood, said the film caused a global shortage of pink paint, adding that “the world has run out of pink,” The Guardian reported Monday, June 5, 2023 .
While some media outlets reported the story without details, Lauren Proud, vice president of global marketing for the paint company Roscoe used in the film, shared additional details with the Los Angeles Times.
Proud confirmed that the film “used all the paint we had,” but confirmed that the production of the Barbie movie came in conjunction with global supply chain problems during the Corona pandemic, as well as severe weather in Texas in early 2021, which affected the vital materials used in the manufacture of paint.
“This shortfall happened, and we gave them everything we could, they stripped us of the paint,” Proud added.
In the Architectural Digest interview, director Gerog said the light pink color was important to “keep the childlike aspect of the film’s aesthetic” and that the design of Barbie Land was inspired by Kaufman’s house in Palm Springs, paintings by Wayne Thiebaud and Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and An American in Paris.
Gerog explained that she wanted the pinks to be very bright, and everything to be very much, adding that she didn’t want to forget “what made me love Barbie as a child.”
Set designers had secured enough paint to produce the film, which was shot mostly at Warner Bros. Studios in Leavesden, UK.
The Barbie movie features Margot Robbie as Barbie, Ryan Gosling as Ken, Barbie’s lover, and also includes Will Ferrell, Simo Liu, Dua Lipa, Helen Mirren, Isa Rae, America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Michael Cera, and Nkoti Gatua. The film will be shown worldwide on July 21.
