Mattel COO flew to Barbie set to argue with Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig over 'off-brand' scene

The Barbie movie is one of the summer's mostly highly anticipated films and fans certainly won't want to miss a second of it when it hits cinemas.

But the COO of Mattel had previously called for one scene to be pulled entirely.

Richard Dickson, President and Chief Operating Officer of the company that makes Barbie dolls, flew to the film's set in London to demand that a scene be scrapped as it was 'off-brand' for the company.

Though, director Greta Gerwig and lead actor Margot Robbie managed to change his mind by performing the scene for him.

Robbie told Time magazine: "When you look on the page, the nuance isn’t there, the delivery isn’t there."

It's not evident what the scene entailed, but will presumably become clear once cinema goers see Robbie strut her stuff on the big screen.

When she first met Mattel's CEO, Ynon Kreiz, Robbie made clear that the film would have on-brand and off-brand moments.

Warner Bros

The Australian actor explained: "In that very first meeting, we impressed upon Ynon we are going to honor the legacy of your brand, but if we don’t acknowledge certain things - if we don’t say it, someone else is going to say it.

"So you might as well be a part of that conversation."

Part of Robbie's vision was that there would be multiple Barbies in the film, while she embodied the 'stereotypical' Barbie look.

Robbie said: "If [Mattel] hadn’t made that change to have a multiplicity of Barbies, I don’t think I would have wanted to attempt to make a Barbie film.

"I don’t think you should say, 'This is the one version of what Barbie is, and that’s what women should aspire to be and look like and act like.'"

The demand to have a scene cut was just one of the chaotic things that happened during production of the highly anticipated flick.

Warner Bros

Set designers also admitted that they inadvertently caused an international shortage of pink paint in bringing Barbie's world to life.

Production designer Sarah Greenwood said: "The world ran out of pink."

Fortunately, nobody was left seeing red, Barbie's house got to look pretty in pink and moviegoers won't be left feeling blue.

Enough color puns? Right.

The film was originally envisioned with Amy Schumer playing the lead role but she walked away from the project due to 'creative differences'.

Schumer said of the upcoming movie: "But there’s a new team behind it and it looks like it’s very feminist and cool so I will be seeing that movie."

Barbie will be in cinemas on 21 July.

Topics: Margot Robbie, Barbie, Film and TV

Ben Thompson