Helen Mirren reveals she shot a 'very funny' cut “Barbie ”scene with Olivia Colman

"I had to fight her off."

Helen Mirren assumes the faceless part of the narrator in Greta Gerwig's Barbie, but it turns out she also shot a scene as herself squaring off against fellow acting royalty for the 2023 blockbuster.

“It was a very funny scene with Olivia Colman sort of playing drunk and us clashing about who is the real grande dame of British actresses,” Mirren recently told Variety of the moment, which did not make the final cut. "She comes in and tries to take over the role of the narrator, and I had to fight her off.”

Mirren clarified that the scene was a parody and all in good fun, praising British actors as being supportive of one other. Both stars are, of course, held in high esteem — so much so for Mirren that when Gerwig sent her the script for Barbie, the part was labeled as "Helen Mirren" rather than "Narrator," the outlet reports.

The dame, who is this year's American Cinematheque Award honoree, recently reprised her role as the narrator alongside her Barbie costars Kate McKinnon, America Ferrera, and Ryan Gosling for a 2024 Oscars promo in which host Jimmy Kimmel has trouble finding his way to Oscars Land.

"Since the dawn of time, men have been getting lost. This is the story of one such dum-dum," Mirren says in the promo. With the help of Weird Barbie (McKinnon), Kimmel does eventually make it to his destination, where Ferrera's Gloria pops up after he says he's nervous to host the show again and she delivers a spoof of her big Barbie monologue.

Michael Cera, who played Allan in the movie, recently revealed that, like Colman, Ben Affleck nearly had a cameo in the summer hit, but he had to drop out due to his commitment to his film Air. Affleck was slated to appear sometime before Allan's memorable fight scene with the construction Kens.

"I think Ben wanted to do it, but he was directing his movie, but they didn't find that out until the 11th hour," Cera said. "They're like, 'Okay, Ben is out. Something has to happen here, so you're gonna fight them.'"

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