Barbie Producer Margot Robbie Was All In - Even If Another Actor Played The Lead
With "Barbie" finally about to hit theaters, estimates predict it will sweep the weekend box office, but early in the production process, nothing was certain. Margot Robbie stars as the titular Barbie, who ends up on a journey of self-discovery as she leaves behind her life in plastic. Robbie also executive produced the film alongside director Greta Gerwig, and according to the Aussie actor, she was fully invested in "Barbie" whether or not she got to play the lead role. In fact, she initially wasn't going to play Barbie at all.
"I didn't want whoever our director was going to be — Greta being the first choice, but if she had said no — I didn't want our director to feel pressured to put me in the role," Robbie explained during an interview with Collider. "So, I was just really upfront about, like, 'I won't be offended in the slightest. We could go to anyone. Whatever story you want to tell and whoever you want that to be, I support that. I've got skin in the game as a producer, I don't have skin in the game as an actor, so be free with that choice.'"
Robbie has spoken at length elsewhere about the importance of "Barbie" and why she felt like the right person to steward the doll's first live-action adaptation. But ultimately, although she wasn't sold on playing the iconic doll, Gerwig insisted.
Margot Robbie wanted to produce Barbie — playing her was a secondary benefit
Greta Gerwig was Margot Robbie's first choice to direct "Barbie." The celebrated filmmaker's past films, "Lady Bird" and "Little Women" especially, are studied examinations of womanhood and patriarchy. While many were surprised to hear Gerwig had boarded a blockbuster film like "Barbie," she fit the bill perfectly for a film musing on the various ways in which Barbie dolls have reflected or contrasted against feminist values. And while Robbie wasn't insistent that she play the lead role, it's hard to imagine an actor who so embodies the perfection the role demanded.
For her part, Robbie says Gerwig insisted she take the lead role, telling Collider, "[Gerwig] was like, 'Shut up. I want to write this for you.' And I was like, 'You might feel pressured to say that, but ... ' and we did that dance for a while." But eventually, Robbie came around to the idea of playing Barbie. As she put it, "Eventually, I just accepted that she did want me to play the role, and then she wrote it. She wrote me in and she wrote Ryan [Gosling] in, and it was our names printed on the script from the get-go."
If initial reviews of "Barbie" are to be believed, Gerwig made the right choice with the film's casting. Rotten Tomatoes critics have praised both Robbie and Ryan Gosling in their roles as Barbie and Ken, respectively.