Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ caused a worldwide pink paint shortage

Since it was announced that director Greta Gerwig would be taking on the new Barbie film, fans have been speculating what this would mean. How would Barbie’s Dreamhouse look on a live-action set? How will our childhood imaginations translate via Hollywood? Well, a new insight into the film has been revealed on Architectural Digest, where the women behind the camera spoke about all things set design and production – and how they caused an international shortage of pink paint. 

“I wanted the pinks to be very bright, and everything to be almost too much,” says Gerwig in the interview. “Why walk downstairs when you can slide into your pool? Why trudge upstairs when you take an elevator that matches your dress?” she continued. She told fans that the “kid-ness was paramount” in creating the sense of what made her and children around the world love Barbie. The group explained that they wanted “to capture what was so ridiculously fun” about the franchise, including perfecting Barbie’s Dreamhouse.

But the world of Barbie isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, especially when that world doesn’t actually exist, and it was admitted that they used that much of her signature shade that eventually “the world ran out of pink.” The props, sets, clothes, and anything else that would make it on camera had to be hotter than hot pink to create this illusory Dreamworld of Barbie. The L.A. Times then confirmed with Lauren Proud, the VP of global marketing at Rosco (the paint company they used), who said that “they did clean us out on paint. There was this shortage and then we gave them everything we could.” Fans can expect to see cinemas painted pink on the 21st of July.