"I actually don't know if I even owned a Barbie." Margot Robbie may have not been obsessed with the dolls as a child, but there was one thing that she was extremely keen on: the Barbie Dreamhouse. From constructing her fold-out house as a 5-year-old to seeing a life-size version come to life right before her eyes, Margot Robbie truly manifested her Barbie dreams. Margot breaks down her entire process for the 'Barbie' movie, from the mental preparation for the role, working alongside Greta Gerwig and Ryan Gosling on set, the fabulous pink wardrobe and so much more.SAG-AFTRA members are currently on strike; as part of the strike, union actors are not promoting their film and TV projects. This video was conducted prior to the strike.Director: Juliet LopezDirector of Photography: Matt KruegerEditor: Jess LaneDirector of Content: Lane WilliamsonSenior Manager, Creative Development: Logan TsugitaCreative Producer: Funmi SunmonuCoordinating Producer: Sydney MaloneAssociate Producer: Meb BeyeneAssociate Producer: Rafael VasquezTalent Booker: Lauren MendozaCamera Operator: Shay Eberle-GunstProduction Assistant: Fernando BarajasProduction Assistant: Liza AntonovaPost Production Supervisor: Christian OlguinPost Production Coordinator: Scout AlterSupervising Editor: Erica DillmanAdditional Editor: Paul TaelAssistant Editor: Courtney KarwalGraphics Supervisor: Ross RackinAssociate Manager, Creative Development: Ali Farooqui
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 I cannot think of a movie that had more hair
00:02 than the Barbie movie because everyone had wigs
00:05 with 10 times the amount of hair
00:06 a wig would normally have in it.
00:08 And it was like down to your waist every time.
00:10 And it was so fun.
00:11 Hi, Teen Vogue, I'm Margot Robbie
00:13 and this is how I became Barbie.
00:15 [upbeat music]
00:18 I didn't actually audition for the role of Barbie.
00:26 I produced the film, so I guess I cast myself.
00:30 But I did make it very clear to Greta.
00:32 Greta being our writer and director,
00:34 she was always who I wanted to make a Barbie movie with.
00:36 I said to her when she said, "Yes, I'll come on board.
00:39 "I don't have to be in the movie.
00:42 "I'm very passionate about making this as a producer,
00:44 "but I don't have to play Barbie or be in the movie
00:47 "in any capacity, I'm happy just to produce."
00:49 And she was like, "No, I really wanna write this for you."
00:51 And she wrote me an amazing part, so I'm very grateful.
00:54 And then in the case of Ryan being our Ken,
00:58 kinda like the corresponding Ken to my stereotypical Barbie,
01:01 she wrote him into the script as well.
01:03 It always said in the script,
01:04 Barbie Margot and Ken Ryan Gosling.
01:07 So we manifested that into existence as well
01:10 and just pretty much wouldn't take no for an answer.
01:13 We're like, "Ryan, you have to come do it.
01:14 "It's on the page, you have to."
01:16 But I'd met him before and I knew that we got along
01:19 and I had a feeling just based on things
01:20 I'd heard about him and I love his work.
01:23 I have loved his work for so long.
01:25 I thought, "I think we would work well together."
01:27 And we did, it was great.
01:28 I pretty much made two requests to Greta
01:34 'cause she asked, "Okay, so what do you,
01:37 "is there anything that you want from the Barbie movie?"
01:39 I was like, "Yes, two things.
01:40 "A slide that goes from her bedroom to her pool
01:42 "'cause that's my dream in life and a mermaid Barbie."
01:44 And she was like, "Really, anything else?"
01:46 I was like, "Nope, just those two things
01:48 "and it's okay if they can't be there,
01:49 "but I'd be so happy."
01:52 And of course, we've got Dua Lipa as our mermaid Barbie
01:56 and I certainly have a slide that goes from my bedroom
01:58 down to my pool and it was so fun,
02:01 literally dreams coming true.
02:02 I wasn't actually a Barbie fanatic as a child.
02:06 I actually don't even know if I owned a Barbie,
02:09 but my cousin had Barbies and Barbies were just
02:12 omnipresent throughout my childhood
02:14 because she's everywhere.
02:15 It wasn't something that I was really that focused on
02:18 or obsessed with.
02:19 I don't remember ever opening a Christmas present
02:22 that was a Barbie, but I do remember opening
02:23 a Christmas present when I was five years old,
02:26 the Barbie fold-out house, which I was obsessed with.
02:30 Just the construction of it and I think I've been, yeah,
02:33 inspired to world build ever since.
02:35 Clearly started at a young age.
02:37 So then I got to witness in real life watching
02:40 a dream house be built in front of my eyes
02:44 and I would go in and watch the construction teams
02:46 when we were in pre-production, piecing this together
02:48 and making these life-size dream houses,
02:51 which was the most incredible thing.
02:53 And people would come to set and see them
02:55 for the first time and actually start crying.
02:58 People were just so overwhelmed by how beautiful they were,
03:02 but also just how handmade they felt,
03:04 which was always the intention behind it.
03:06 I suppose I mentally began becoming Barbie
03:14 as soon as I read the script.
03:15 I just couldn't not read the script and be like
03:17 playing it out in my head and kind of trying it on
03:19 and seeing if it fit and like, oh, how am I gonna do that?
03:22 And because I was talking to Greta every day,
03:24 these discussions were just constant and ever evolving.
03:27 I decorated my trailer.
03:29 I do this for all the characters I play now,
03:31 but I went all out for this character of Barbie.
03:34 Pink stuff, fluffy stuff, things that make me happy,
03:37 things that are cute, pictures of my friends,
03:40 things like that.
03:42 Just so that I'd be in a really happy, positive mood.
03:45 I have a Barbie perfume, so that's always the final thing
03:48 for my character.
03:49 As soon as I put my character perfume on,
03:51 I think I relate to like smell associations,
03:54 like sense memory is pretty strong for me.
03:57 So as soon as the perfume's on, then I was like,
04:00 okay, ready.
04:01 Then I have all the usual things that I do
04:04 when I prep for a character.
04:05 Working with dialect coach and an acting coach
04:07 and a movement coach and research.
04:10 Spent time at the Mattel headquarters
04:12 speaking to Mattel employees,
04:14 asking them about how the brand has evolved over the years.
04:17 What was the impotence of some of the changes that they made
04:19 and how do you make a Barbie?
04:21 You know, I could go there and watch someone
04:22 literally thread Barbie's hair.
04:24 But I also did watch, you know, Barbie documentaries,
04:27 did read about the creator, Ruth Handler,
04:29 all that kind of history to Barbie.
04:31 And also I watched a bunch of the Barbie,
04:34 like she has a YouTube channel.
04:36 And one that stuck with me that wasn't necessarily
04:40 that applicable for the movie,
04:41 but I needed to hear it for me in life.
04:43 Barbie on her YouTube channel did this whole thing
04:45 about saying thank you instead of saying sorry.
04:48 And I was like, oh wow, I do that all the time.
04:51 I start emails with sorry to bother,
04:53 but you know, da da da, like, sorry I couldn't,
04:56 like, sorry I can't do that.
04:57 Barbie has this whole lesson about like,
04:59 swap out the word sorry for the word thank you.
05:01 Thank you for understanding that I couldn't do that.
05:03 Or thank you for hearing me out,
05:04 here's what I think of this.
05:05 And I was like, wow, I can't believe Barbie just taught me,
05:09 I'm a grown woman and Barbie's still teaching me something.
05:12 It was fun and I definitely delved into
05:14 whatever aspects of Barbie I could find to help,
05:16 help me as a person, but also help me find the character.
05:20 The time spent speaking to Greta
05:22 was the most valuable for this role.
05:24 We had some big lofty questions to ask,
05:27 like what is the meaning of life?
05:28 What is true happiness?
05:30 Why is life worth living?
05:32 If you could have perfect controlled Barbie land,
05:35 what would make you ever choose anything else?
05:37 Good night Barbies,
05:38 I'm definitely not thinking about death anymore.
05:40 Those questions led to some pretty deep answers
05:44 and conversations and not even answers,
05:47 'cause there isn't really an answer.
05:48 That's what we kept coming back to is like,
05:50 I can't sum up the meaning of life
05:52 in this a neat little sentence.
05:53 Embodying Barbie actually helps when you're wearing heels,
05:56 you already start moving differently
05:58 because your center of gravity is in a different place.
06:01 Everyone in Barbie land who's not one of the main actors,
06:04 like a speaking role actor, were all dancers.
06:06 And this is something Greta had pointed out
06:08 from the beginning, she was like,
06:09 dancers hold themselves differently.
06:11 Even when you see a dancer who's not dancing at the time,
06:13 it's like, you can tell they're a dancer
06:15 'cause they stand with incredible posture
06:18 and they just, they're poised.
06:19 It's like they're ready for anything.
06:21 And she was, you know, Greta says like,
06:23 you watch an old soundstage musical
06:26 and like everyone in the background,
06:27 even if they're meant to be acting casually,
06:28 it's like, they're looking at a hat.
06:30 She wanted that feeling in Barbie land.
06:31 So embodying that too, just always being poised
06:35 and there's something very like certain,
06:37 very intentional about existing in Barbie land.
06:40 Like I'm going to the beach, I'm saying hi to my friends,
06:43 I'm doing this, everything, you give your whole self to it
06:46 and you're brimming with enthusiasm and optimism and joy
06:50 and everything is wonderful.
06:52 And it's also very intentional.
06:55 I know how I feel about this,
06:56 I've never doubted anything
06:58 until I start having thoughts of death
07:00 and then suddenly my movements start get a little uncertain.
07:03 Maybe my words, I stumble on my words
07:04 and I've got a bit of hesitation.
07:06 Maybe I go back on myself a little bit more
07:08 and you know, in doing that,
07:09 you're becoming a little more human.
07:11 The hair and makeup process,
07:15 maybe it wasn't as long as you'd expect.
07:17 I've done movies where my whole body's being painted
07:20 and tattooed and things like that and that's pretty lengthy.
07:22 I think we had this down to about an hour 45
07:25 to do hair and makeup.
07:26 Get picked up at 6 a.m., get to set at like 6.45.
07:30 Hair and makeup, wardrobe, give that two hours
07:33 and then you're on set, yeah.
07:34 We have big, big wigs.
07:36 You know, the key look for Barbie
07:37 was this impossible amount of hair.
07:39 I cannot think of a movie that had more hair
07:42 than the Barbie movie because everyone had wigs
07:44 with 10 times the amount of hair
07:46 a wig would normally have in it.
07:47 And it was like down to your waist every time
07:49 and it was so fun, but it was a lot of hair.
07:52 The wigs kind of made it 'cause it helped with that scale,
07:54 like the different proportions of Barbie
07:56 giving you that fantasy feel of like,
07:58 oh, something's not quite human about her,
08:00 she's got impossible hair.
08:02 Makeup, we just tried to make as beautiful
08:04 as possible.
08:05 Greta really liked the look in these old Technicolor movies
08:08 where they have this creamy sort of look to their skin,
08:11 like this flat look.
08:13 'Cause what was most important with the costumes,
08:15 the hair and makeup is that, you know when you put on
08:16 an outfit and you're kind of like,
08:18 I feel really good in this, I think I look good today.
08:21 You bring this confidence with you
08:23 because you're like, I'm killing it.
08:24 And we wanted everyone to have that feeling
08:26 every day in Barbie land.
08:28 All the outfits are not one-to-one replicas.
08:30 Some are inspired by real life Barbies
08:32 that have existed in the past.
08:33 So there might be a picture of like,
08:35 Bridgette Bardot in the 50s or 60s
08:37 and that might inspire an outfit.
08:39 Also the costumes by the end of the film,
08:41 you know, the fabrics we're using are kind of softer,
08:44 something more fragile about the fabrics
08:47 as opposed to like these strong geometric sort of patterns
08:50 and very like sculptured fabrics
08:52 that are gonna hold a shape and tailor it
08:55 with such certainty.
08:57 Kind of by the end of the film,
08:58 I'm wearing this beautiful dress, but it's soft.
09:01 The fabric is soft, there's something fragile about it.
09:03 The pattern of the flowers, there's still flowers,
09:05 but there's something less, there's something more chaotic,
09:08 a bit more random about it.
09:09 And it's subtle, but those things all matter.
09:12 And the jewelry I'm wearing stops being like
09:14 big shell earrings that the scale of it
09:17 starts becoming more human.
09:18 It's like a chain necklace and a ring,
09:20 you know, that kind of thing.
09:21 On set every day was just,
09:28 every day was the best day ever.
09:29 Every day was hilarious.
09:30 There are so many funny actors in this film
09:33 from Ryan, who is so comedically gifted as our Ken,
09:36 Kate McKinnon, I've already worked with Kate before
09:38 and know that she's hilarious,
09:40 but nothing can prepare you for what is ever
09:42 gonna come out of her mouth.
09:43 Will Ferrell plays our Mattel CEO.
09:45 I mean, just so many brilliant comedic actors,
09:48 brilliant actors, every day was hilarious.
09:51 Greta herself is a brilliantly comedically gifted actor.
09:54 So the lines she would give you are always so funny.
09:57 I ruined most of Ryan's takes.
09:59 I would laugh like through half of them.
10:01 He would do something different every time.
10:03 And I think he was just like,
10:04 his barometer was to try and make me burst into laughter,
10:07 which he succeeded at almost every day.
10:09 Yeah, this movie gets to some pretty deep, profound places.
10:17 More so than you'd expect a movie about dolls to be.
10:20 And since we're exploring things
10:21 about how any person might feel,
10:23 there were scenes where like,
10:24 things felt pretty real and raw.
10:27 Not just for me, like America has this amazing speech
10:30 just about how contradictory it is to be a woman
10:33 and how we tie ourself in knots just to be liked.
10:36 How it's just such an impossible task.
10:39 You can't be all those things.
10:41 And then in the end, it's just, you fail anyway.
10:44 So there was some, that speech in particular,
10:47 I think was pretty, very moving.
10:49 Because it's true, like you,
10:51 everyone's like asking like, Ken's like,
10:53 what's my purpose?
10:54 What am I doing here?
10:55 And Barbie's like, what's my purpose?
10:56 And you know, the Mattel CEO,
10:58 who's a character in the movie is kind of like,
11:01 how do I be me in this world?
11:05 You know, so it's kind of everyone has the chance
11:08 of having that moment, having that journey
11:11 and arriving at the kind of acceptance place of,
11:15 you're good, you're good the way you are.
11:17 Thank you so much, Teen Vogue,
11:19 for watching "How I Became Barbie."
11:21 [upbeat music]