Meet the voice of all your favorite Barbie toys and games

Dressed from head to toe in denim and gold, Super Talk Barbie has a lot to say. The computer chip in her chest picks and chooses from a combination of sentences – Let’s get together and… go dance with Ken, get ice cream with friendsor sit and watch videos. Put all those lines together and Super Talk Barbie has 100,000 different phrases, according to Mattel’s 1994 commercial.

It’s no wonder Chris Anthony Lansdowne was in Mattel’s California studio every day for years; she is not only the voice of Super Talk Barbie, but of all products from the 90s where you hear Barbie’s voice. By Barbie fashion designer And Barbie Riding Club to a Barbie flip phone and boombox, Lansdowne’s voice is embedded in all things Barbie. For so many kids who grew up in the ’90s, Lansdowne is Barbie, the voice of their youth.

Polygon spoke with Lansdowne in June to discuss her iconic role, particularly in Barbie fashion designer, the first mass market ‘game for girls’. Lansdowne talked about getting the job voicing Barbie, the legacy of the role, and how she told her child—in Barbie’s target audience—that she’s portraying her favorite doll.

Polygon: Barbie fashion designer is the first Barbie video game you voiced, but how did you get started in the role?

Chris Anthony Lansdowne: I’ve been doing voiceover work for years. I was a camera for the first time [actor]. You could see me in commercials and I was always a goofy blonde and a funny bank clerk. It became so limited for me because I was a blonde, blue-eyed girl and couldn’t do old women or crazy characters, which I’m really known for. And I thought, “Gosh, voice acting is so different.” You could be an old old lady. And then you could be a little boy. You could do anything. And it didn’t matter what you looked like. And I thought, Yes. Someone kind of set me free in this new world.

I started booking, you know, commercials and animation and stuff. By the time Barbie happened, it was 1994 and I was doing toy voices, but Mattel was looking for a voice for Barbie. They didn’t really have an established voice. I didn’t know I was auditioning for Barbie. I gotta tell you, this is probably the craziest part of my journey as Barbie – how I got cast.

I went to Mattel the next day not knowing it was for Barbie. And there was an earthquake – the 1994 earthquake in Northridge, California, 20 minutes from where I lived. It wasn’t so bad that I was out of the house, but it was bad – definitely things flying off the shelves. I had never been in it and I had my daughter who was a baby. It was traumatic. And I thought in my mind – this is crazy – Oh no! How do I get to my audition? It’s the life of an actress.

I called the director and said I couldn’t come. He says, ‘Look, Chris, we’re under fire. Can you just give us a few lines of something and we’ll know if you’re Barbie.” I didn’t even understand that. I was so nervous. I said, ‘Sure, I can audition over the phone. What do you want me to say?” And he says, “Well, why don’t you say, ‘Hello, this is Barbie, welcome to McDonald’s’?”

Now I’m auditioning for an earthquake for Barbie. It was so intense. The Barbie. I thought about when I played with her like a doll. I wanted her to be a little soft and sweet, like a little girl’s best friend. And so I said, ‘Hello, it’s me, Barbie. Welcome to McDonald’s. You look very cool. I opened my eyes and I went, OK… that just came out of my mouth. That’s Barbie. The director said nothing. It took me a few seconds to think I was so bad he didn’t even respond. He says, “Wow, Chris. Any chance you could come to Mattel tomorrow? And I said, ‘Sure. I’ll deal with the earthquake.

The next day I got in the car. No running water. I put on my baseball cap. Very un-Barbie-esque. You want to audition for Barbie in pink and [with] your hair done. In the lobby is a great giant Barbie, a statue of her. She looked like an Oscar. And I thought, I’m going to be her voice. I straightened my baseball cap and went back to the recording studio. There were 10 people in the booth watching. The director says, “Just do what you did on the phone.”

So I said, ‘Hello, it’s me, Barbie. You all look cool.’ They laughed. It was dead quiet. And then it happens, slow motion. The director put his finger on the talkback button and said, “Hello, Barbie. Welcome to Mattel. Tomorrow we start work.”

We did toys after mobile phone after boombox after CD-ROM. We went on and on, month after month, with Barbie toys. Because suddenly Barbie had a voice. I was in the studio non-stop.

Photo: Tim Leedy/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images

And then came the game?

The computer game was mentioned Barbie fashion designer. They said a little girl could sit at the computer and design Barbie’s fashion. They provided some materials in the box [so] that you could print out the fashion and stick it on your Barbie. Your Barbie could model the outfit you just made.

Boys had billions of computer games. Girls had nothing. When this one came out, it was groundbreaking. Every little girl had to have it Barbie fashion designer. I remember thinking, Wow, this is cutting edge. It was so exciting because I kept thinking: I’ll be in all these little girls’ houses. They’re going to play and I want to make sure she’s just a good friend. My whole thing was not to make her stupid or stupid. I wanted her to be smart and sweet.

When they contacted me this year about Fashion designer being nominated for the Video Game Hall of Fame made perfect sense. When it was picked, that was great. I changed my mind Well, if I kick the bucket tomorrow, at least I’ll be in the hall of fame! Anyway, my vote is.

Personally, I played the game as a little girl and when I heard your voice… It was just a big part of my childhood. Detective Barbie in the Mystery of the Carnival Caper used to be my favourite.

And then there was Barbie Riding Club, Barbie [Magic] Hair stylist, Barbie: Ocean Discovery. It went on and on. There were days when I finished recording and just got in my car and thought: Gosh, I want to stay like Barbie. I want to live in her world.

Is recording for a video game like Barbie fashion designer other than shooting for TV or film or any of the toys you’ve done?

That’s for sure. It’s in that toy genre where it’s a little bit more broken and chopped. Animation has a story. But video games are a bit like directing. In my world, and what we’re talking about with Barbie, it was directing kids and showing them how to play. But as we got more into a story-like computer game, it got a little more fun. Like when Barbie was Rapunzel. But yeah, it’s like a toy to me where it needs to be a little bit more focused, you know? But at the same time I remember there was a line that said, ‘Oh, you look cool. I love your outfit.” You know, she was encouraging. That was really cool to encourage girls and encourage someone to play. But yeah, it’s kind of repetitive because you have to repeat it over and over.

Image: Digital Domain/Mattel Media

You mentioned this a little bit earlier, but then realized how important Barbie fashion designer would become?

Part of me felt like what I was doing would probably outlive me. I didn’t know, I’m still here. But I was looking forward to it. It’s hard because you get cast in something and you really appreciate what you do. You have to live in the moment and appreciate what you are doing. And I did. I felt that all the time I was doing it until there was a transition of time where they started doing different sounds or making her hipper, cooler. I had a 90s feel to me.

i remember when Toy Story came out and I thought: Oh my god I’m going to be in this feature film Toy Story. At that point, Mattel didn’t want me to tell people I was Barbie. They wanted the magic and fantasy of Barbie. I couldn’t share what I was doing for a long time. It was hard because I wanted to share so much because I was so proud of it. I would have a bunch of kids at my front door asking if I could do Barbie. And there were times when I called children who were sick. Mattel didn’t know.

But in any case, Toy Story came out and for some reason they didn’t want it. Disney wanted to use their own Barbie. I had been doing Barbie for eight years by then. And I thought, What? Don’t you want me as your Barbie? They decided to do their own thing. Much of the journey is out of your control. They ended up using a beautiful person, Jodi Benson, who was the Little Mermaid. I thought, Does she have enough work to do? Give me back my Barbie! But they did and she did a different version of Barbie.

I’m just thankful I got to be her for so long.

How did people react when they finally found out you were Barbie?

My daughter was about 5 when I spent a lot of time with Barbie. My daughter loved Barbie. She played Fashion designershe had barbies in her closet, she had barbie shoes.

She is playing Fashion designer on the computer… She must have been six or seven. I’m listening from the other room and I hear Barbie, she’s directing. And I thought, Does my daughter even know I’m Barbie? Shall I tell her and completely ruin it for her? It would be like telling someone that Santa doesn’t exist. I thought, I’m not going to tell her. I don’t want to ruin it. It was maybe a week later, someone came up to her and said, “Do you know your mom is Barbie?”

I’m just afraid she’s Dr. Phil is going to use. She looks at it and says “Huh?” And they said, ‘Yeah, your mom does Barbie’s voice. That’s your mother.” She hasn’t played in about a week. She didn’t get it at that age. But as she got older, she thought it was really cool. It’s like, ‘Do you know my mom? My mother’s Barbie.’ Her friends came to the car and she said, “Mom, do the voice.” And I would go [in the Barbie voice]”Go clean up your room!”