Simu Liu Reveals What Really Makes Barbie Land So Amazing

All Barbies are invited to this party.

Grab your rollerblades and break out your best pink 'fit because Barbie hits theaters in less than a week on July 21, with Barbie and Ken Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling welcoming audiences to come hang out in Barbie Land. While the film's star Simu Liu, who plays Ken 2, acknowledged that Margot and Ryan "really do embody" the iconic Mattel dolls, he explained that what makes life in plastic so fantastic is how inclusive the Barbie world has become. 

"What I love about this movie is that there's lots of Barbies and lots of Kens," Simu told E! News' Francesca Amiker. "I think that's been the evolution of the Barbie brand over the years."

The first Barbie was released in 1959, with Simu noting the toy was "innovative and disruptive" during a time where young girls previously only had infant dolls to play with.

"Barbie for the first time was like, 'Actually, you can play with a future version of yourself where you can aspire and hope to dream to be anyone that you want,'" the 34-year-old said. "At that time, you had to be blonde, but you could be a lawyer, you could be a doctor, you could be president of the United States."

While that's how Barbie began, Simu continued, "thankfully, it has evolved to be more inclusive, to be more diverse, to accommodate differently abled people, all sorts of body types and ethnicities and colors and gender expressions."

And though America Ferrera doesn't play a Barbie in the film, she told E! News' Keltie Knight that was it "really exciting" to be a part of a project that was "expanding this narrative" that she never felt she was a part of growing up. 

"It didn't reflect me and it wasn't accessible to me," America, who is the daughter of Honduran immigrants, explained. "It was aspirational outside of my reach, so to get to be a part of a moment that is really going to include so many people that maybe have not felt included in cultural mainstream storytelling, it's really exciting."

The message of acceptance and inclusivity was forged and fostered by director Greta Gerwig, even when it came to all of the Kens' fitness regimens ahead of filming, which Simu said went beyond just the actors' physicality.

"It was just the mentality of working out that Greta really wanted us to get into the habit of," Simu shared. "She was very clear Kens don't have to look a certain way to be Ken, they just have to be the best version of themselves, whatever that meant for each of us individually, that's what it was."

So Ryan, Simu and their fellow Kens—including Kingsley Ben-Adir, Ncuti Gatwa and Scott Evans—weren't required to have a six-pack to tap into their Kenergy. 

"Part of what makes Barbieland so fun and so enticing and what will make it speak to so many people," Simu explained, "is that it's a place where judgment doesn't really exist and people are free to express themselves and be whomever they want. That's really beautiful."

While each Ken was given permission to be himself, there was one thing they all had in common: They knew that the Barbies—Issa Rae as President Barbie and Dua Lipa as Mermaid Barbie, for example—are the VIPs in Barbie Land. "Kens are kind of just there," Simu said, which he noted is in line with the doll's history. 

"I don't think a lot of people owned Ken dolls, Nobody cared about Ken," the Marvel star admitted. "Barbie was always the star of the show. She had the job, she was the accomplished one. She was the astronaut, the engineer, doctor, lawyer, president, and Kens are just accessories to the Barbies."

Well, she's Barbie and he's just Ken.

Barbie hits theaters July 21.