‘People are weird’: Margot Robbie shocked by Barbie response

Aussie star Margot Robbie opened up about fan reaction to Barbie, and revealed her surprise at the cultural phenomenon of ‘Barbenheimer’.

Australian star Margot Robbie revealed she had no idea that Barbie would become a cultural phenomenon, and admitted “people are weird” after its massive box office success alongside Oppenheimer.

Speaking to actor Cillian Murphy, the other half of the Barbenheimer blockbuster blowout, Robbie said she was almost certain Barbie would be a hit, but was surprised just how big it became.

Barbie became the highest-grossing film of 2023 with an estimated $US1.44 billion at the box office, becoming the 14th highest-grossing film of all time.

“Yeah, 90 per cent of me was certain that this would be a big deal and a massive hit, and 10 per cent of me thought, “Oh, this could go so badly wrong,” she told Murphy for Variety Magazine’s “actors on actors” cover.

Margot Robbie and Cillian Murphy are among the stars who front the Actors on Actors issue of Variety. Picture: Alexi Lubomirski for Variety

Margot Robbie was shocked at the cultural phenomenon of ‘Barbenheimer’. Picture: Alexi Lubomirski for Variety

“Obviously, I didn’t know it was going to be the cultural phenomenon that it ended up being.”

The July 21 movie was released on the same day as Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which sold over $953 million in tickets worldwide, making it the highest-grossing WWII film and highest-grossing biopic.

Despite the heavy-hitting director behind Oppenheimer and a personal appeal from the movie’s producer to move Barbie’s release date, Robbie revealed she refused to shift her release plans for the Greta Gerwig-directed Barbie.

“I was like, ‘We’re not moving our date. If you’re scared to be up against us, then you move your date’,” Robbie said.

“I think this is a really great pairing, actually. It’s a perfect double billing, ‘Oppenheimer’ and ‘Barbie’.

“Clearly the world agreed. Thank God. The fact that people were going and being like, ‘Oh, watch ‘Oppenheimer’ first, then ‘Barbie.’’ I was like, ‘See? People like everything’. People are weird.”

Despite the breakout success of Barbie, and Barbenheimer, Robbie said there was a moment in the film’s production when her character wasn’t coming together.

Margot Robbie and Cillian Murphy are among the stars who front the Actors on Actors issue of Variety. Picture: Alexi Lubomirski for Variety

Cillian Murphy grilled Robbie on creating the character of Barbie. Picture: Alexi Lubomirski for Variety

She worked with an acting coach, a dialect coach, a movement coach, and even pretended to be a flamingo for 45 minutes before realising it wasn’t working.

“I went to Greta, like, ‘Help me. I don’t know where to start with this character’. And she’s like, ‘OK, what are you scared of?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t want her to seem dumb and ditzy, but she’s also not meant to know anything. She’s meant to be completely naive and ignorant’,” Robbie said.

“And Greta found this episode on ‘This American Life,’ where it was a woman who can’t introspect, who doesn’t have the voice in her head that’s constantly narrating life the way we all do. This woman’s got a PhD and is extremely smart, but just doesn’t have that internal monologue.”

Originally published as ‘People are weird’: Margot Robbie shocked by Barbie response