It’s not straightforward being pink. Both Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie had bother determining who Barbie truly was after they got down to make Barbie: the character has “no inside life” and “no wishes,” Gerwig famous at a current Q&A attended by The A.V. Club. “She’s not vapid, however she simply doesn’t have any interiority.” So how do you play a personality like that?
“I felt so misplaced as a result of I usually have, like, a little bit of a instrument equipment,” Robbie defined. That toolkit contains arising with childhood recollections, working with a motion coach, choosing out animals, pulling up photos, and extra. But “none of these instruments had been relevant to Barbie,” the actor lamented. “I used to be like an hour and a half into, like, standing like a flamingo, and I noticed, ‘Oh, none of these items are gonna work for this character,’ as a result of constructing from the within out isn’t what this film requires. She’s exterior and then you definitely’re gonna discover her inside.”
Feeling “weak and uncovered,” Robbie confirmed up at Gerwig’s home “in the course of the evening being like, ‘Help me, I’m gonna break this film, what do I do?’” The director gave her star some “wonderful issues” to work with. “Greta can’t solely reference a film from like 1931 concurrently she’s referencing a current TikTok,” however she’ll additionally “discover the factor that’s scaring you most earlier than you know the way to articulate it… after which sit in it with you,” Robbie gushed. “Like, she doesn’t provide the reply instantly, she sits in that with you. And then you definitely discover it collectively. And she had so some ways of doing that for this character.”
As Robbie has beforehand shared, one among Gerwig’s references for her was a This American Life episode about somebody who doesn’t “have the inside monologue that all of us have” (“She can’t introspect, however she’s very sensible”). “Things like that Greta could be like, hearken to this, I believe it’d assist,” Robbie recalled. “She doesn’t tie up solutions neatly in a bow, however she type of leads you, like, gently by the hand down this scary path. And then you definitely go down and also you’re like, oh, I found a lot down right here… Greta’s an incredible director.”
Such an incredible director, in truth, that Robbie sees Barbie as only the start of a shiny future. “We may be the brand new, , Scorsese and De Niro. Or Scorsese and Leo, ?” Robbie joked to Entertainment Tonight on the Gotham Awards, earlier than telling Gerwig, “What I imply to say is, it’s a must to work with me once more not less than one other 4 occasions.”
