LOS ANGELES — Mark Ronson is showing off his Barbies.
Scattered throughout his studio, the executive producer of the “Barbie” soundtrack — and a musical polymath known for his work with artists like Amy Winehouse and Lady Gaga — has a few “leftovers” scattered across the room. One doll is placed in a permanent split, stretched across a Moog synthesizer. Another is styled to look like primatologist Jane Goodall.
“I went to Toys R Us and I couldn’t find a single Ken,” he laughs. Fittingly, “that’s the theme of the movie.” Mattel HQ did end up sending over a few; the Ken that remains in Ronson’s studio is, appropriately, shirtless.
Finding the sound of “Barbie,” poised to become one of 2023’s biggest blockbusters, required careful consideration and research for a film with such a rich visual palette. In the end, he produced a stacked soundtrack that included Lizzo, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa (who also acts in the movie) and more.
But it started with a simple text message.
The music supervisor on the project, George Drakoulias, shot Ronson a quick, “Barbie?” Ronson read the script and was in. He also scored “Barbie” with collaborator Andrew Wyatt. Ronson is no stranger to working on music for film, but executive producing a soundtrack album and scoring an entire movie, let alone, a movie of this size, was new territory. “It was a lot of learning on the job,” he says.