The Barbie Movie Almost Depleted the World’s Pink Paint

Barbie, the most anticipated movie of 2023, nearly caused a worldwide shortage of pink paint during its filming.

Ever since we learned that Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling would be the stars of the film, the hype skyrocketed. But that wasn’t the only thing it caused; this movie led to a global shortage of pink paint.

And while this may sound like a joke, it’s not. The sets of the production, resembling a toy factory, were designed with great enthusiasm from the very beginning, but they never anticipated the challenge of assembling and painting those stage designs.

Greta Gerwig (the film’s director) and Sarah Greenwood (production designer) wanted the set to exude a sense of “authentic artificiality.” The production team soon realized that everything in that setting was entirely pink.

“I wanted the pinks (within the production design) to be very vibrant, and I wanted everything to be exaggerated,” Greta Gerwig stated. “The world ran out of pink,” declared Sarah Greenwood.

“I wanted the pinks to be very vibrant, and I wanted everything to be almost too much […] I didn’t want to forget what made me love Barbie as a child,” Gerwig added, laughing at the fact that she used so much pink that “the world ran out of pink.”