The world ran out of pink because of the movie “Barbie”.

Already in the first trailer of Greta Gerwig’s film “Barbie”, the landscape shines in bright pink. And that as much as possible without computer-animated effects, because Gerwig wanted to keep the set as authentic as possible. Includes hand-painted sets and hands-on toys. “We literally created the alternate universe of Barbie Land,” Gerwig told Architectural Digest.

Also, everything had to be pink and pink. “It was important to preserve the character of the child,” says Gerwig. “I wanted the pinks to be bright and clear and everything was almost too much”. She didn’t want to “forget what I loved about Barbie when I was a little girl.” Production designer Sarah Greenwood even claims that “the world [wegen der ‹Barbie›-Produktion] pink on wax”.

And that despite the fact that the set was about a fifth smaller than conventional film sets. “The scale was pretty weird,” says co-production designer Katie Spencer. “The ceiling is actually quite close to the head, and it only takes a few steps to cross the room. It has the strange effect of making the actors in the room appear tall, but generally short,” says Spencer.

Lauren Proud of color manufacturer Rosco confirmed that there was a shortage of pink color. This company supplied paint for the film set. Proud told the Los Angeles Times, “They used all the paint we had.” But it’s not that simple, because on the one hand, the disruption in supply chains caused by the corona pandemic was still felt during the shooting in 2022.

Second, the company was recovering from a deep freeze that hit Texas in early 2021 and damaged key materials used to make the paint. In short: Rosco already worked with less paint than usual. “There was this scarcity”, says Proud, «and then we gave them everything we could». As shown in the trailer, not only are the outfits pink, but so are the backgrounds and landscapes.

“Barbie” starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling can be seen in German-language Swiss cinemas from July 20, 2023.

(cmu)