Rob Thomas, Ryan Gosling. Kristin Callahan/Shutterstock ; Jaap Buitendijk/Warner Bros.
There are a ton of potential takeaways from the Barbie movie, however one surprising results of seeing the movie is having Matchbox Twenty’s “Push” caught in your head.
Lead singer Rob Thomas opened up about director Greta Gerwig getting in contact together with his crew to get permission for Ryan Gosling (Ken) to report the 1996 tune for the Margot Robbie-led film.
“I need to preface this by saying that I assumed it was hilarious. However in Carry It On, (Kirsten Dunst’s character) has this douchey boyfriend. And there’s a scene the place he was in his dorm room with a Matchbox Twenty poster within the background. There was a complete interval throughout the ‘90s the place the extra profitable we obtained, the larger goal we had been. We had been a simple takedown,” Thomas informed USA Today after Barbie was launched on Friday, July 21. “After I obtained the decision for Barbie, they informed me, ‘Ken’s by the hearth, he’s taking part in the tune and it’s his favourite band.’”
Whereas Thomas thought Matchbox Twenty could be “the butt of the joke” — one thing he was “effective with” as he’s “fairly thick-skinned” — he was pleasantly stunned when he heard extra concerning the scene, which incorporates Gosling and the opposite Kens passionately singing “Push” on the seashore to the Barbies.
“However Julie Greenwald [from Atlantic Records] got here to the Hollywood Bowl a month or two in the past. She had simply seen the film and was like, ‘You come out of it loving Ken and loving ‘Push.’’ And I used to be like, ‘Aww. Alright, actually good!’” he recalled.
Thomas went on to name Gerwig “considered one of my crushes without end.”
“To the purpose the place I used to be on a airplane one time and v like, ‘Child, Greta Gerwig simply got here on the airplane, oh my God.’ So simply the truth that it didn’t diminish my crush of Greta, that’s even higher,” he stated.
Throughout an look on the “ReelBlend” podcast, Gerwig confirmed that Matchbox Twenty was conscious of the tune getting used within the movie.
“I hope it reinvigorates the tune,” she stated. Whereas the filmmaker stated it made her “chuckle so exhausting interested by” the Kens singing the tune on the seashore, Gerwig revealed that a number of forged members didn’t know “Push” wasn’t written particularly for Barbie.
“A number of the forged is youthful and in addition that tune didn’t actually chart within the U.Ok. the way in which it charted within the U.S. So truly, loads of the forged thought we had made up the tune,” she stated. “And I used to be like, ‘Oh, no, it is a legit pop hit.’”
Issa Rae, who performs President Barbie, later admitted to Entertainment Weekly that she was one of many stars who wasn’t acquainted with the tune. “I assumed [Greta] made the tune up for that scene. … I used to be like, ‘This is a real song?!’” she stated throughout a forged roundtable. “I escaped it [at the time], I assume. However I prefer it!”
In the course of the EW interview, Gerwig defined that whereas she thought the Kens would relate to Matchbox Twenty — whereas Barbie is an Indigo Ladies stan — she was even stunned by listening to the lyrics once more.
“I wanna push you round / Properly, I’ll, nicely, I’ll,” Thomas sings within the refrain. “I wanna push you down / Properly, I’ll, nicely, I’ll / I wanna take you with no consideration.”
Thomas, for his half, shared extra perception into the tune throughout his interview with USA In the present day, telling the outlet that he penned the monitor about an ex in a single night time.
“What’s humorous is, I wrote that tune about somebody I had been with who I felt was manipulating me and making the most of me. The ‘90s was a time of manufactured angst, and no person wished to be a sufferer in a tune. So in a bizarre twist of various instances, there’s one thing very problematic about ‘Push,’ if it wasn’t for the innocence of the way it was written. However every part about it was about emotional manipulation. It was nearly this concept that it’s a lot simpler to search out somebody you possibly can benefit from than it’s to truly put work right into a relationship,” he stated. “However on the time I used to be in my early 20s. I didn’t even know what I used to be writing about. It takes being in my 50s now, and being married for twenty-four years, to look again and go, ‘Oh, man, I used to be going via some [stuff].’ Remedy didn’t seem to be an possibility within the ‘90s, so I used to be simply journaling my emotions and sharing them with the world.”
Regardless of the controversial lyrics, Thomas stated there “wasn’t that a lot outrage” on the time, including that the band “got here from the George Michael, David Bowie world of ‘let’s get anyone speaking about one thing.’”
“We additionally lived in a special local weather,” he stated. “A tune like that with out an asterisk subsequent to it’s extra problematic now, as a result of we’re all far more conscious of issues. However on the time, ‘90s music was fairly problematic. And in a manner, [the song] was very tame subsequent to a bunch of different issues. Additionally, take a look at me – I’m not going to push anyone round.”
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Barbie, which brought in more than $162 million on its opening weekend, is in theaters now. The soundtrack — together with Gosling’s cowl of “Push” and authentic tune “I’m Simply Ken” — is obtainable to stream.
