Greta Gerwig was bummed her film babies Timothée Chalamet and Saoirse Ronan were too busy for Barbie

There comes a time in every mother’s life when she must come to terms with the fact that her babies—her little women, if you will—are going to grow up, develop their own passions and interests, and not be so keen on playing with dolls anymore. (You can go ahead and play “Return To Pooh Corner” while reading the rest of this article.)

That sad time has arrived for award-winning director Greta Gerwig, who recently opened up about how “annoyed” she was to have to do Barbie without her biological children Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet, who were originally could have made special cameo appearances in the film. Okay, so she didn’t literally give birth to Jo March and the future Mr. Wonka, but we’re sure when you’ve come up together the way these three have, the ache is similar. (Something Gerwig actually probably understands quite well, considering the subject matter of the trio’s first collaboration, Lady Bird.)

In an interview with CinemaBlend, Gerwig spoke about the Ronan and Chalamet cameos that never materialized. (Ronan herself also talked about this potential role in September; the Chalamet shout is new.)

“It was always going to have to be, like, a sort of smaller thing because she was actually producing at the time, which I am so proud of her for,” Gerwig said of Ronan’s potential appearance. The actor was working on Nora Fingscheidt’s The Outrun at the time, a project with Gerwig called “brilliant.”

She continued: “But it was going to be a specialty cameo. I was also going to do a specialty cameo with Timmy. Both of them couldn’t do it and I was so annoyed. But I love them so much. But it felt like doing something without my children. I mean, I’m not their mom, but I sort of feel like their mom.”

As sad as this must be for Gerwig (and for all of us, who are only human and would have loved to see this) it’s a consolation to think of Gerwig’s surrogate babies beaming with pride at the glowing feedback Barbie is already receiving—and vice versa for Gerwig at the upcoming premieres of Wonka and The Outrun.