How Margot Robbie Became Barbie 🎀✨

I cannot think of a movie that had more hair

than the Barbie movie,

because everyone had wigs

with 10 times the amount of hair

a wig would normally have in it.

And it was like down to your waist every time.

And it was so fun.

Hi Teen Vogue,

I'm Margot Robbie and this is how I became Barbie.

[screen crackling] [playful music]

I didn't actually audition for the role of Barbie,

I produced the film, so I guess I cast myself.

But I did make it very clear to Greta,

Greta being our writer and director,

she was always who I wanted to make a Barbie movie with.

I said to her when she said, Yes, I'll come on board.

I don't have to be in the movie.

You know,

I'm very passionate about making this as a producer,

but I don't have to play Barbie

or be in the movie in any capacity.

I'm happy just to produce.

And she was like, No, I really wanna write this for you.

And she wrote me an amazing part.

So I'm very grateful.

And then in the case of, you know,

Ryan being our Ken,

kinda like the corresponding Ken

to my stereotypical Barbie,

she wrote him into the script as well.

It always said in the script,

Barbie, Margot and Ken, Ryan Gosling.

So, we manifested that into existence as well.

And [chuckling] just pretty much

wouldn't take no for an answer.

We're like, Ryan, you have to come do it.

It's on the page, you have to. [chuckling]

But I've met him before

and I knew that we got along,

and I had a feeling just based

on things I'd heard about him.

And I love his work.

I have loved his work for so long.

I thought, I think we would work well together.

And we did.

It was great.

[screen crackling] [playful music]

I pretty much made two requests to Greta.

'Cause she asked, you know, like, okay,

Is there anything that you want from the Barbie movie?

I was like, Yes, two things.

A slide that goes from her bedroom to her pool.

'Cause that's my dream in life.

And a mermaid Barbie.

And she was like, Really?

Anything else?

I was like, Nope, just those two things.

And it's okay if they can't be there, but,

I'd be so happy.

And of course we've got Dua Lipa [laughing]

as our mermaid Barbie.

And I certainly have a slide

that goes from my bedroom down to my pool,

and it was so fun.

Literally dreams coming true.

I wasn't actually a Barbie fanatic as a child.

I actually don't even even know if I owned a Barbie.

But my cousin had Barbies,

and Barbies were just omnipresent throughout my childhood,

because you know, she's everywhere.

It wasn't something

that I was really that focused on or obsessed with.

I don't remember ever like opening a Christmas present

that was a Barbie.

But I do remember opening a Christmas present

when I was five years old.

The Barbie foldout house.

Which I was obsessed with,

just the construction of it.

And I think I've been, yeah,

inspired to world build ever since.

Clearly started at a young age.

So then I got to witness in real life

watching [chuckling] a dream house be built

in front of my eyes,

and I would go in and watch the construction teams

when we were in pre-production

piecing this together

and making these life-sized dream houses,

which was the most incredible thing.

And people would come to set

and see them for the first time and actually start crying.

People were just so overwhelmed by how beautiful they were

but also, just how handmade they felt,

which was always the intention behind it.

[screen crackling] [playful music]

I suppose I mentally began becoming Barbie

as soon as I read the script.

I just couldn't not read the script

and be like playing it out in my head,

and kind of trying it on,

and seeing if it fit,

and like, Oh, how am I gonna do that?

And because I was talking to Greta every day, you know,

these discussions were just constant and ever evolving.

I decorated my trailer,

I do this for all the characters I play now,

but I went all out for this character of Barbie.

Pink stuff, fluffy stuff,

things that make me happy,

things that are like cute, pictures of my friends,

like things like that. [giggling]

Just so that I'd be in, you know,

a really happy positive kind of mood.

I have a Barbie perfumes,

so that's always the final thing for my character,

as soon as I put my character perfume on,

I think I relate to like smell associations,

like sense memory is pretty strong for me.

So as soon as the perfume's on then I was like,

Okay, ready. [giggling]

Then I have all the usual things that I do

when I prepped for a character,

working with dialect coach and an acting coach,

and a movement coach, and research.

Spent time at the Mattel headquarters

speaking to Mattel employees,

asking them about how the brand has evolved over the years.

What was the impotence

of some of the changes that they made,

and how do you make a Barbie?

You know, I could go there

and watch someone literally thread Barbie's hair.

But I also did watch, you know, Barbie documentaries,

did read about the creator, Ruth Handler,

all that kind of history to Barbie.

And also, I watched a bunch of the Barbie,

like she has a YouTube channel.

And one that stuck with me

that wasn't necessarily that applicable for the movie,

but, I needed to hear it for me in life,

Barbie on her YouTube channel did this whole thing

about saying thank you and instead of saying sorry,

and I was like, Oh wow, I do that all the time.

I start emails, we're sorry to bother but, you know,

da-da-dada.

Like sorry, I can't do that.

Barbie has this whole lesson

about like swap out the word sorry for the word thank you.

Thank you for understanding that I couldn't do that,

or thank you for hearing me out,

here's what I think of this.

And I was like, Wow, I can't believe Barbie just taught me,

I'm a grown woman and Barbie's still teaching me something.

It was fun and I definitely delved

into whatever aspects of Barbie I could find

[Margo chuckling]

to help me as a person,

but also help me find the character.

The time spent speaking to Greta

was the most valuable for this role.

We had some big lofty questions to ask,

like what is the meaning of life?

What is true happiness?

Why is life worth living?

If you could have perfect controlled Barbie Land,

what would make you ever choose anything else?

Goodnight Barbies.

I'm definitely not thinking about death anymore.

Those questions led to some pretty deep answers

and conversations.

And not even answers, 'cause there isn't really an answer.

That's what we kept coming back to is like,

I can't sum up the meaning of life

in a neat little sentence.

Embodying Barbie actually helps when you're wearing heels

you already start moving differently,

because you're center of gravity is in a different place.

Everyone in Barbie Land who's not one of the main actors,

like a speaking role actor, were all dancers.

And this is something Greta

had pointed out from the beginning.

She was like, Dancers hold themselves differently.

Even when you see a dancer who's not dancing at the time,

it's like you can tell they're a dancer

'cause they stand with incredible posture,

and they just, they're poised.

It's like they're ready for anything.

And she was, you know, Greta says like,

You watch an old soundstage musical

and like everyone in the background,

even if they're meant to be acting casually,

it's like they're looking at a hat.

She wanted that feeling in Barbie Land.

So, embodying that too,

just always being poised,

and there's something very like certain,

very intentional about existing in Barbie Land.

Like, I'm going to the beach,

I'm saying hi to my friends, I'm doing this.

Everything, you give your whole self to it,

and you're brimming with enthusiasm, and optimism, and joy,

and everything is wonderful,

and it's also very intentional.

I know how I feel about this.

I've never doubted anything

until I start having thoughts of death,

and then suddenly my movements start get a little uncertain,

maybe my words, I stumble on my words,

and I've got a bit of hesitation,

maybe I go back on myself a little bit more,

and you know,

in doing that you're becoming a little more human.

[screen crackling] [upbeat music]

The hair and makeup process

maybe wasn't as long as you'd expect.

I've done movies where my whole body's been painted

and tattooed, and things like that,

and that's pretty lengthy.

I think we had this down to about an hour, 45

to do hair and makeup.

Get picked up at 6 AM,

get to set at like 6:45.

Hair and makeup, wardrobe,

give that two hours, then you're on set.

Yeah.

With big, big wigs.

You know, the key look for Barbie

was this impossible amount of hair.

I cannot think of a movie that had more hair

than the Barbie movie,

because everyone had wigs with 10 times the amount of hair

a wig would normally have in it.

And it was like down to your waist every time.

And it was so fun.

But it was a lotta hair.

The wigs kind of made it, 'cause it helped with that scale.

Like the different proportions of Barbie

giving you that fantasy feel of like,

Oh, something's not quite human about her.

She's got impossible hair.

Makeup, we just tried to make as beautiful as possible.

Greta really liked the look

in these like old technicolor movies

where they had this like creamy sort of look to their skin,

like this flat look.

Cause what was most important with the costumes,

the hair and makeup is that,

you know when you put on an outfit

and you're kind of like,

I feel really good in this.

Like I think I look good today.

Like, you bring this confidence with you

because you're like, I'm killing it.

And we wanted everyone to have that feeling

every day in Barbie Land.

All the outfits are not one-to-one replicas.

Some are inspired by real life Barbies

that have existed in the past.

There might be a picture of like Brigitte Bardot

in the fifties or sixties, and that might inspire an outfit.

Also, the costumes by the end of the film, you know,

the fabrics we're using are kind of softer,

something more fragile about the fabrics,

as opposed to like these like strong geometric

sort of patterns, and very like sculptured fabrics

that are gonna hold a shape

and tailor it with such certainty.

Kind of by the end of the film

I'm wearing this beautiful dress,

but it's soft, the fabric is soft,

there's something fragile about it.

The pattern of the flowers, their still flowers,

but there's something more chaotic,

a bit more random about it, and it's subtle,

but those things all matter.

And the jewelry I'm wearing

stops being like big shell earrings

that the scale of it starts becoming more human,

It's like a chain necklace and a ring,

you know, that kind of thing.

[upbeat music]

Ah, on set every day,

every day was the best day ever, every day was hilarious,

there was so many funny actors in this film,

from Ryan who is so comedically gifted as our Ken,

Kate McKinnon,

I've already worked with Kate before

and know that she's hilarious,

but nothing can prepare you

for what is ever gonna come out of her mouth.

Will Ferrell plays our Mattel CEO.

I mean, just so many brilliant comedic actors,

brilliant actors, every day was hilarious.

Greta herself is a brilliantly comedically gifted actor, so.

The lines she would give you were always so funny.

I ruined most of Ryan's takes,

I would laugh like through half of them.

He would do something different every time.

And I think he was just like,

his barometer was to try and make me burst into laughter,

which he succeeded at almost every day. [chuckling]

[screen crackling] [upbeat music]

Yeah, this movie gets to some pretty deep, profound places,

more so than you'd expect a movie about dolls to be.

And since we were exploring things

about how any person might feel,

there were scenes where like things felt pretty real

and raw.

Not just for me, like America has this amazing speech

just about how contradictory it is to be a woman,

and how we tie ourself in knots just to be liked.

How it's just such an impossible task.

You can't be all those things. [chuckling]

And then in the end, it's just, you fail anyway, you know.

So, that speech in particular

I think was very moving.

Because it's true,

everyone's like asking, Ken's like, What's my purpose?

What am I doing here?

And Barbie's like, What's my purpose?

And you know, the Mattel CEO,

who's a character in the movie,

is kind of like,

How do I be me in this world?

You know.

So it's kind of, everyone has their chance

of having that moment, having that journey,

and arriving at the kind of acceptance place of,

you're good, you're good the way you are.

Thank you so much Teen Vogue

for watching how I became Barbie.

[playful music]