Matt Bomer Doesn’t Regret Turning Down Barbie

Matt Bomer almost wound up in Ken’s Mojo Dojo Casa House. During a Dec. 6 appearance on The Tonight Show, Bomer opened up about auditioning to play a Ken alongside Ryan Gosling in Barbie — and why he actually doesn’t regret turning it down.

“You made headlines this summer, which I think was very fun, for a movie that you were not in,” host Jimmy Fallon remarked. “Not many people do that. I mean, normally they’re in the movie.”

Bomer acknowledged the irony, but noted that he got deep into the casting process with director Greta Gerwig. “I got really into it, actually,” he said. “I had some projects in development. I wasn’t sure if they were gonna happen, or when they were gonna happen, so I auditioned.”

During the audition process, he took styling his Ken looks very seriously. “I dressed up like Malibu Ken, business suit Ken,” he said. “I had like four different looks going on. I have pictures of this. Yeah, I got into it.”

Why Bomer Doesn’t Regret Saying No

After receiving the offer, Bomer had to turn down Barbie because the projects he already had been working on, including the limited series Fellow Travelers and Oscar contender Maestro, ended up coming to fruition. “And I would’ve been away from my family for a year, which was just too much time away,” he added.

When asked if he regrets saying no to what was considered “the biggest movie in the world,” Bomer gave a firm “no.” “I mean, I hope I get to work with Greta someday — she’s phenomenal,” he said. “But I think they made a perfect movie and it was cast perfectly, and I got to do Fellow Travelers and Maestro and spend time with my family.”

Bomer previously opened up about his Barbie audition to Vanity Fair, stating he filmed the entire process himself for Gerwig. “I recorded it on my own, played a bunch of different Kens,” he explained. “I recorded the lines of the other person’s dialogue on my recorder and then gave myself space to respond.”

Other Almost-Kens

Bomer wasn’t the only actor who almost played a Ken in Barbie. In a July interview with Vanity Fair, the film’s casting directors revealed that Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang, Schitt’s Creek star Dan Levy, and Tony winner Ben Platt were all in the running, but none panned out due to timing.

“They were definitely really different, but they had to feel like a cohesive group,” Lucy Bevan said about the search. “You wanted to cast people who were really going to get on and be great and enjoy it.”