You may have seen Issa Rae dancing effortlessly to the Grammy-nominated hit song Dance the Night, but that was by no means her favorite aspect of filming Barbie. Apparently, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling’s starrer flick was not always the life of the party—at least not for the Insecure actress.
The Hollywood Reporter was recently informed by Rae, who portrayed President Barbie in the Greta Gerwig-directed movie, that although she enjoyed being in the movie and on set, filming the dance scene—a group number set to Lipa’s song—was “the worst day” of her life.
For any performer, being able to convey the appropriate emotions and establish a compelling connection with the music often depends on knowing the lyrics of the song. Sadly, Rae was not able to do so during her preparation of this dance number, as she “didn’t have the lyrics to the song”.
Issa Rae Explains Why Dancing on Dua Lipa’s Hit Became Her ‘Worst Nightmare’
Primetime Emmy Awards nominee Issa Rae, who portrayed President Barbie in the $1.446 billion movie, discussed her dancing experience to the Grammy-nominated song by Dua Lipa. The Little star admitted in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that learning the group number Dance the Night was “the worst day of my life”. In her words:
“Doing the Dua Lipa song and dancing to it was my worst nightmare. It was the worst day of my life. It was the best day of my life being on that set. It was exciting, and then, literally the first day, I had to learn the choreography to shoot the [following] day.”
Filming the Greta Gerwig-directed flick’s dance scene is deemed “terrible” by Rae. She added:
“It was exciting, and then literally the first day, I had to learn the choreography to shoot the [following] day. And it was terrible. We also didn’t have the lyrics to the song. Greta was like, ‘Oh, it’s going to be a Dua Lipa song’.’ But all we had was the instrumental, so I was just like, ‘What the f**k is this? What am I dancing to?’”
Despite not having much fun filming that dance scene, Rae did enjoy making Barbie, and she even talked about how much fun she had during the shoot with her co-stars.
Issa Rae Enjoyed Filming Barbie With Her Co-Stars
Not everything about dancing with the Barbie crew was awful, though. While hanging out with her Barbie co-stars, Issa Rae told ET at the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse premiere that it was an absolute blast. She stated:
“We went out together at a club night, we had a couple of other crazy nights, so, she was all about facilitating bonding time.”
Rae had nothing but praise for the film’s director, who kept the actor cast—which included Ryan Gosling, Simu Liu, and Margot Robbie—entertained with several events.
“I’m grateful for it. We were better for it. We did a lot of un-Barbie-like activities off-set.”
With over $100 million in revenue, the summer blockbuster has also dominated the awards season and received numerous nominations. Barbie was a big hit with critics and audiences alike, and it did incredibly well at the box office, so much so that almost immediately after the movie’s premiere, many people were asking if there would be a sequel.
The movie was not “designed to be a trilogy”, according to Robbie herself. In a Variety interview, she clarified:
“It’s funny, that knee-jerk reaction in this day and age for everyone to immediately ask about a sequel. I don’t think it was like that 20 years ago. This wasn’t designed to be a trilogy.”
The Best Original Song for Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell’s What Was I Made For? was one of Barbie’s two Golden Globe wins. In addition, the movie has received twelve Grammy Award nominations and has been ranked among the top ten films of 2023 by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute.
Barbie is now streaming on Max.
