dan levy barbie

Toronto's Dan Levy explains why he turned down role in 'Barbie' movie

Simu Liu, Ryan Gosling, and Michael Cera weren't the only Canadians approached to star in the Barbie movie — turns out Dan Levy was offered a part, too.

The 40-year-old actor and filmmaker, who's best known for playing David Rose in the CBC-produced Schitt's Creek, told People that he was offered a role in Barbie, the 2023 box office hit that earned over US$1.38 billion worldwide.

Despite the opportunity to join the movie led by Margot Robbie and directed and co-written by Greta Gerwig, sadly, Levy revealed that he had to turn down the role.

His reason: scheduling conflict.

"Logistically could not make it work despite desperately trying to," he said. "So, yeah, I guess I was technically unavailable to do that."

And the FOMO is real, according to Levy.

"Does it haunt me when I sleep at night? Sometimes," he admitted. "It's not like it isn't like one of the biggest movies of all time. That was a tough, tough day."

He added that he's a big fan of Gerwig, stating, "I think Greta had such a like wonderfully bizarre and and magical aesthetic idea of of what that movie was. I would have loved to play in her world. I think she is one of the great, young auteurs of our time."

The Emmy Award-winning actor stars in the Netflix movie Good Grief, which he also wrote and directed. Levy plays an illustrator dealing with the death of his husband.

Lead photo by

lev radin/Shutterstock | Barbie/IMDB


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