"It was a shocker": Lucy Boynton explains why Proust Barbie's role was shortened in Greta Gerwig's film

In a recent interview with SiriusXM's The Spotlight with Jessica Shaw, actress Lucy Boynton discussed her cameo as Proust in Barbie and revealed that she was originally supposed to have a larger role in the film:

"Proust Barbie is only softly in the background of the Barbie film because in the test screenings, it turns out that contemporary audiences don't know who Proust is, so the joke doesn't quite land."

Lucy Boynton added:

(It's) a little bit of a heartbreaker that we are kind of losing touch with that history, but hopefully this will then be a trigger for people to read up on Marcel Proust. It was a shocker."

Proust Barbie took inspiration from French novelist Marcel Proust and appeared in a brief scene exploring a failed line of Barbie dolls.

Lucy Boynton opens up about playing Proust Barbie

While talking about why scenes of her character Proust Barbie were cut from the movie, Lucy Boynton revealed writer-director Greta Gerwig called her, informing her about the test audience's reaction to the soft gag intended around Proust Barbie:

"Will Ferrell at one point references it and (Greta's) like, 'Theres' no reaction. They don't know who Proust is.' It's not a whole Olivia Colman cameo."

While talking about her experience on filming for the movie, Lucy Boynton said:

"Being on that set was wild. Being in the Weird Barbie house was surreal. That's kind of why you immediately say yes to that opportunity, obviously to be in the environment with those brilliant brains, but yeah. To be on that set was wild."

While talking about audience's reaction to Barbie and all her prototypes, Gerwig's, during her appearance at BFI London Film Festival in 2023, explained she went to different theatres, and stood in the back. When an audience member laughed at Proust Barbie, Gerwig felt, "That joke was for you!"

Who is Proust Barbie?

The Proust Barbie in the Barbie movie appears in a set of cameos that looks back on the failed line of Barbie dolls. When Barbie is told to spend time in the box she came from, she steps inside it, and comments that the box smells of a "Proustian memory". To this, Mattel CEO Will Ferrell responds by speaking to one of his colleagues, saying:

"Remember Proust Barbie? That did not sell well."

Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist. While explaining Proust Barbie's character, Greta Gerwig told AP News:

"In 'Rememberance of Things Past', in Swann's Way, he is literally thrown back into his childhood through the taste of the madeleine. I thought, well, that'll be a nice Easter egg for one person."

As per The Guardian, the phrase "Proust's Madeleine" is used to indicate a "sensory cue that triggers a memory."

While explaining the thinking that went behind creating Proust Barbie, Gerwig's, in an interview with Radio One, said:

"There's lines in this movie, maybe one person will laugh at them...I'm like, 'I can't believe we're writing these jokes into this movie. And it was like, so much of it felt so...in a way we did (write it for ourselves.)"

The interviewer at AP News also pointed out Proust's favorite author, Oppenheimer, tying it back to the movie, Oppenheimer, which released on the same day as Barbie. Gerwig, responding to the comment, said:

"So he would have loved Proust Barbie."

There are also plenty of other Barbie prototypes that made cameos in the film including, Barbie Video Girl Doll, Everything Barbie, Author Barbie, Supreme Court Justice Barbie, Mermaid Barbie, Diplomat Barbie, Physicist barbie, Lawyer Barbie, Doctor Barbie, Gymnast Barbie, President Barbie, and Journalist Barbie.