Becoming a “Barbie” girl, it turns out, takes more than driving around in a convertible and owning a Malibu dreamhouse.
To prepare to play the world-famous doll in the new movie “Barbie,” in theaters July 21, actress Margot Robbie obsessed over the nuances of her voice, physicality and the character’s unique psychology — all to tackle a toy.
Robbie, 32, revealed in the summer issue of Vogue the surprising amount of work involved in bringing plastic to life on screen.
A big choice made in the film, directed by Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird”), is keeping Barbie and Ken playthings rather than real people.
So, one major question the “Wolf of Wall Street” actress faced: What are Barbie’s feelings on sex?
“I’m like, Okay, she’s a doll,” Robbie said to the magazine. “She’s a plastic doll. She doesn’t have organs. If she doesn’t have organs, she doesn’t have reproductive organs. If she doesn’t have reproductive organs, would she even feel sexual desire? No, I don’t think she could.”
Margot Robbie told Vogue she thought that if her character were an animal, she’d be a flamingo.Ethan James Green/Vogue
Robbie said that Barbie doesn’t “have that voice in her head.”Ethan James Green/VogueRobbie added: “She is sexualized. But she should never be sexy. People can project sex onto her … Yes, she can wear a short skirt, but because it’s fun and pink. Not because she wanted you to see her butt.”
The actress struggled initially to get inside Barbie’s head for the film, which she is also a producer on. She told Vogue that she often relies on “animal work,” or picking a creature that best embodies a person, to figure out a character.
This time, she chose a flamingo, but her tried-and-true method wasn’t clicking. So, Gerwig sent her an episode of “This American Life” about a woman who doesn’t think about herself.
“You know how you have a voice in your head all the time?” Robbie said. “This woman, she doesn’t have that voice in her head.”
“She is sexualized. But she should never be sexy,” Robbie said of Barbie.Ethan James Green/ Vogue
Robbie, Vogue’s summer cover star, revealed her thoughts on the sexualization of her titular character in the upcoming flick “Barbie.”Ethan James Green/VogueAnd bingo! That’s Barbie.
For the voice, the Australian actress mastered a “General American accent,” the region-less brogue used by newscasters, only with a sky-high pitch.
While Robbie plays “Stereotypical Barbie,” several other actresses — including Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon and Dua Lipa — are in the film as other versions of the toy. Robbie said she desperately wanted “Wonder Woman” Gal Gadot to appear as one, but she was unavailable. “Gal Gadot is Barbie energy,” she said.
Ryan Gosling, however, was available to play Ken, Barbie’s boyfriend, and Robbie had to build up affection for her co-star. Doing that, in part, involved giving him gifts every single day — in character.
Ryan Gosling as Ken and Robbie as the iconic doll in “Barbie.”Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures “They were all beach-related,” Gosling said. “Like puka shells, or a sign that says ‘Pray for surf.’ Because Ken’s job is just beach. I’ve never quite figured out what that means. But I felt like she was trying to help Ken understand, through these gifts that she was giving.”
On set, Robbie can be creatively impulsive, sometimes shockingly so. Gosling told Vogue, “She has a kind of fearlessness that you can only get from literally growing up swimming in shark-infested waters.”
