Michael Cera Explains Why Ben Affleck Dropped Out of Pivotal ‘Barbie’ Role at the Last Minute

The Happy Sad Confused podcast recently hosted Barbie co-stars Michael Cera, America Ferrera, Ryan Gosling, and Kate McKinnon for an extended interview about the Oscar-nominated comedy.

During the sit-down, Cera revealed that his character’s fight scene was added only after Ben Affleck dropped out of a cameo appearance at the last minute. “I wasn’t even supposed to fight in the movie,” Cera told the panel.

The scene in question occurs about an hour into Barbie, when Allan (Cera) must fight a gang of Ken construction workers to facilitate an escape from Barbieland. "Am I allowed to say what was supposed to be?” Cera asked his co-stars. “It was supposed to be Ben Affleck,” he said, noting that the sequence was “never part of Allan’s journey” in the original script.

"I think Ben wanted to do it, but he was directing his movie (Air), but they didn't find that out until the 11th hour," the Arrested Development star explained. "They're like, 'OK, Ben is out. Something has to happen here, so you're gonna fight them.' I had to jump in with the stunt team."

Cera has previously engaged in some strenuous on-screen combat, most notably in the 2010 romantic action comedy Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. But according to the actor, his Barbie fisticuffs nearly broke him. "I had just gotten over Covid and they had me training, and I almost died just doing a warm-up,” he laughed. “I had to lie down in the trailer and they sent a nurse to see me."

Gerwig voiced a slightly more enthusiastic opinion of Cera’s fighting skills on her Barbie commentary track. “He’s great. He has it in him,” she enthused. “The stunt coordinator said when he worked with Michael, ‘Oh, he picks it up right away. He came right back.’”

Cera ultimately credited the director with allowing him to make the scene his own, even if it was devised on the fly. “In the rehearsal, we did the thing where I murdered the guy with the shovel, and it was like a joke,” he recalled. “And then we were like, ‘Greta is not going to let me murder someone in the movie,’ and it’s in the movie!”