Spoilers ahead for Barbie.
After months of discourse and anticipation, the Barbie movie has finally hit theaters. Greta Gerwig’s movie broke box office records, and lived up to the hype that surrounded it ahead of the release. Barbie perfectly pivoted between touching moments and comedy, including some unexpected musical moments. At one point Ryan Gosling’s Ken sings the Matchbox 20 song “Push” to hilarious results. Rob Thomas knew that the song would be the “butt of the joke” in Barbie, here’s why he said yes anyway.
Ryan Gosling got to go back to his Mickey Mouse Club days by performing a few different musical numbers throughout the runtime of Barbie. That includes “I’m Just Ken” and the classic Matchbox 20 song “Push.” Greta Gerwig revealed on the official CinemaBlend podcast ReelBlend that she personally reached out to the band for permission. Rob Thomas share his perspective in a conversation with USA Today, and how the band has been portrayed in the media previously. In his words:
I want to preface this by saying that I thought it was hilarious. But in ‘Bring It On,’ (Kirsten Dunst’s character) has this douchey boyfriend. And there’s a scene where he was in his dorm room with a Matchbox Twenty poster in the background. There was a whole period during the ‘90s where the more successful we got, the bigger target we were. We were an easy takedown.
Clearly Thomas knows the way his band has been used/referenced in popular media. The Matchbox 20 poster in the Bring It On scene flashes by rather quickly, but it is featured with one of the most villainous characters of the beloved ‘90s movie. And as such, Rob Thomas was preparing himself when the Barbie talks about “Push” started.
In that same interview, the Matchbox 20 frontman spoke about how Barbie was pitched to him and his bandmates. While Thomas was preparing for the worst, he was happy to find out that the song and the character Ken both become beloved by the end of Barbie. In his words:
When I got the call for ‘Barbie,’ they told me, ‘Ken’s by the fireside, he’s playing the song and it’s his favorite band.’ So I did this thinking I’d be the butt of the joke, and I was fine with that. I’m pretty thick-skinned. But Julie Greenwald (from Atlantic Records) came to the Hollywood Bowl a month or two ago. She had just seen the movie and was like, ‘You come out of it loving Ken and loving ‘Push.’ And I was like, ‘Aww. Alright, really good!’
Points were made. Audiences might originally laugh at Ryan Gosling’s performance of “Push”, especially given his strange singing accent. But Ken ends up having a moving redemption arc that shows how the patriarchy negatively affects both men and women. Rob Thomas signed on to let his song be used in this way, particularly because he was a fan of Greta Gerwig. As he shared:
Also, Greta Gerwig has been one of my crushes forever, to the point where I was on a plane one time and I called my wife, like, ‘Baby, Greta Gerwig just came on the plane, oh my god.’ So just the fact that it didn’t diminish my crush of Greta, that’s even better.
I mean, same. Greta Gerwig is one of the most wildly successful directors of our time, and her work on both Little Women and Lady Bird was universally acclaimed. Ryan Gosling is clearly a fan, and even got starstruck in front of his wife Eva Mendes. And all of this led to his song’s perfect use in the Barbie movie.
It should be fascinating to see how high Barbie climbs at the box office, and if it ends up being an Awards Season favorite. There are plenty of folks already calling for Ryan Gosling to get a Oscar nom for playing Ken, but it’s going to be a long road to the Academy Awards.
Barbie is in theaters now. Be sure to check out the 2023 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.
