Issa Rae confesses her body not ready for ‘Barbie-shape’ before filming Barbie

Barbie star Issa Rae has recently confessed she wasn’t “Barbie-shape ready” but soon realised that Greta Gerwig’s movie had included all “body types”.

In a new interview with Glamour, the actress, who plays the role of President Barbie in the movie, revealed she “wasn’t in shape when selected for the role”.

“Right before the role came to me, I was post-Insecure, post-the-final-season-of-Insecure-press-tour. I was like, ‘Well, I’m going to let myself go. I’m eating everything,’” said the 38-year-old.

She continued, “And then I got the call to do Barbie and was like, ‘Oh, no, I am not Barbie-shape ready.’ But then I realised Greta Gerwig’s Barbie world consists of all body types”.

“So, while I was still on my fitness journey, I felt less insecure about my Barbie body or lack thereof,” remarked Issa.

The actress opened up about her discussion with the director regarding body image and representation in the movie.

“That was something that I was concerned about like who are the other Barbies, and what do they look like?” she mentioned.

Issa explained, “I saw that immediately on my first day when I was doing the dance sequence rehearsal. There were so many different types of Barbies, and so many different types of Kens.”

The actress found “Barbie Land” perfect as Greta did her best to try to include everybody like “some able-bodied, ages and genders”.

“Almost everyone in the world is represented in some way here. That’s not an easy piece. I’m sure someone might be like, ‘Where am I?’ But know that there was such an effort made to have Barbie Land be inclusive,” she added.