Ariana Greenblatt, Barbie’s sassy teen star, on fame, friendship and why Billie Eilish is the ‘only person I’m really comfortable’ with

Aug 12 , 2024

Ariana Greenblatt photographed for Style by Royal Gilbert. Chanel: jumper, earrings

With new movie Borderlands about to open, Greenblatt talks about being mentored by Kevin Hart and exchanging secrets with fellow Gen Z superstar Billie Eilish

There’s a casual confidence that is quite enviable about Ariana Greenblatt, the enigmatic young actress who became a familiar face worldwide virtually overnight thanks to last summer’s blockbuster Barbie flick – and all before the age of 16. It’s safe to say you’re the real deal, after all, when you’ve held your own alongside A-listers like Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling at that age. But that’s not what I find most remarkable about Greenblatt when I meet her over a video call, almost a year after the Barbie craze broke out.

It’s 6pm in LA when she picks up the phone, sitting on the porch outside her house with windswept hair, wearing funky hoop earrings and apologising profusely for her candid off-duty look – yet it’s how relatable she appears that immediately strikes me. “Do I look crazy?” she asks. (I assure her she looks just fine and very much in character as herself.) It was the candid qualities of Sasha, her teenage character in Barbie, that first endeared her to audiences, and I’m happy to find that she’s equally sassy, smart and hilarious in reality – albeit a lot less snarky and a lot more pleasant to chat with.

Ariana Greenblatt photographed for Style by Royal Gilbert. Prada: dress, hat; Jimmy Choo: shoes; Kotn: socks

“I never have the expectation of [my projects] blowing up,” Greenblatt admits. “I asked the cast, like, ‘Do you guys expect all this?’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah, we knew.’ I was like, ‘Why am I the only one [who didn’t]?’” she laughs. “I knew the people I was filming with and I knew it was gonna be spectacular, but I think it settled in when I would just drive around LA. I saw so many Barbie posters and so many people planning the outfits they’d wear to the theatre, and I’ve never experienced something like that before – it was surreal.”

I feel like the only person I’m really comfortable to express what I’m going through with is Billie [Eilish], but weirdly enough, Kevin [Hart] always has such great advice. Whatever [the issue] may be

One could say that Greenblatt’s real life doesn’t differ much from that of her on-screen counterpart, going on an adventure from the real world straight into Barbieland. One year on from the Barbiecore craze and cultural phenomenon, it doesn’t seem like the magnitude of the project – and the massive fame that came with it – has really hit the young actress just yet. “It’s still strange to this day to know celebrities or interact with them or have them see my work … It was never something I saw for myself. I just knew that I enjoyed [acting]; I knew I enjoyed the creative process and I never had the expectation of it going anywhere – or me becoming anybody.”

The up-and-comer will be the first to have you know that her life remains remarkably normal. Greenblatt started out training as a dancer, moving from New York to Florida, before landing in LA. The performing arts are in her blood, it seems, with her father a former actor – though Greenblatt insists that she couldn’t have predicted the amount of success she’s found at such a young age, despite her natural affinity for the profession. “I fell into acting in such a weird, kismet way, and I never expected or wanted fame. That was never in my orbit, like ever.”

Ariana Greenblatt photographed for Style by Royal Gilbert. Coach: jumper, boots; Milli Point Two: shorts; Bonnie Clyde: glasses

Before Barbie, Greenblatt had racked up a list of credits that any child actor would be proud of, booking her first Disney Channel gig at the age of six, before landing the role of younger sister to fellow Gen Z actress Jenna Ortega in another Disney Channel series, Stuck in the Middle. Next came silver-screen credits in hits like Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War – where Greenblatt played a younger version of Zoe Saldaña’s character, Gamora – and the film adaptation of the Lin-Manuel Miranda musical In the Heights.

It’s hard to tell all of this from our present-day conversation though, when we’re so invested in talking about Greenblatt’s regular day-to-day life. “The most normal thing about me is truly that I am as normal as you could possibly think,” she laughs, mere minutes after her father briefly, inadvertently, barges in on this interview. What does she do with her friends? “We go get food, and we go to the beach, or we make friendship bracelets.” Does she want to go to college? “I don’t like school. If I can skip that little portion of life, I’d be happy to.”

Ariana Greenblatt photographed for Style by Royal Gilbert. Moschino: dress; MSGM: shoes