Hari Nef on Getting Glam for Her 'Barbie' Role: 'I Want the Highest Heel Every Time'

For Hari Nef, star of the upcoming candy-coated Barbie movie, filming was all about the glam.

In a recent profile for Out, Nef dove deep into the costume-making process for the film, revealing what it took to turn her character into a life-size doll. 

While most stars of the summer blockbuster met with writer/director Greta Gerwig or leading woman Margot Robbie first, Nef, 30, was introduced to the set by costume designer Jacqueline Durran. The two collaborated on most of Nef’s looks throughout the film, drawing on her history in modeling and fashion in a process Nef called a “dream factory.”

“It’s literally the most preposterous, once-in-a-lifetime, exciting, orgasmic opportunity to go all in on this one little thing that I love so much, which is clothes and looks and fashion and the fantasy," Nef explained. “I told them straight up, ‘I want the highest heel every time. I want the waist tiniest every time. I want the biggest hair every time. I want to put big things in my hair.’ ”

Nef analogized getting into high glam for her shimmering scenes in the toy world to getting into drag.

“I’m a lover of drag. I’m a lover and admirer from afar of ballroom culture,” she said. “It felt kind of like a legacy that I could honor onscreen of dolls dolling, dolls dressing up. The category was dot, dot, dot, something different every day. I’ve joked before, it really did feel like Greta Gerwig’s Drag Race.”

In some ways, acting in Barbie was like a drag performance, Nef added: “I was doing acting, dancing, comedy, and the whole time I was cinched, wigged, painted from head to toe, padded, heels.”

As a trans woman, Nef also commented on the nature of Barbie as the ultra-feminine woman. “It’s a very specific kind of femininity,” she explained. “It’s not a kind of femininity that I live every single day of my life in, but it’s one that I come back to time and time again. It’s also one that I feel very comfortable wearing in public, and when the cameras are on and when people are watching.”

“As much as there’s a celebration of femininity and being a girl in this [movie], I think there’s also an encouragement of letting go of the checklist we ascribe to living and living your life and being in your body your way, on your own terms,” she continued. “The best that we can do as women, as trans women, is be there for each other and take ourselves at face value, without relying on the green light from someone or anyone else.”

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Nef is no stranger to the intersection of transfemininity and beauty. As the first trans woman signed to IMG Models, she's modeled for magazines like Dazed and i-D while walking in New York Fashion Week, and starred in Victoria’s Secret campaigns with models including Iman.