Margot Robbie claims Barbie is sexualized, but she isn’t sexy.
Deadline recently reported on Margot Robbie’s interview with Vogue, where she addressed the over-sexualization of Mattel’s Barbie dolls. Robbie made a good point, saying, “She’s a plastic doll,” and “She is sexualized,” adding, “But she should never be sexy.” Robbie may be spot on with her assessment, but as for the movie version, she is being played by Margot Robbie, and Ken is being played by Ryan Gosling, so it’s hard to say the Barbie in this particular movie isn’t sexy:
Of course, Margot Robbie is talking about the literal Barbie dolls and not necessarily the women who play these dolls in the movie. And sure, Ryan Gosling’s bleach-blonde Ken hair is certainly a choice, but it’s still Ryan Gosling. In short, there are definitely going to be a lot of attractive people playing Barbie and Ken in this movie, no matter how you slice it.
Margot Robbie’s Barbie movie will undoubtedly address the over-sexualization of the popular Mattel doll line, as the movie looks like it will be a sharp satire based on what we’ve seen from the trailer. Under the direction of the always sharp-witted Greta Gerwig, this definitely will be a different take on the popular doll character. It will be interesting to see how Gerwig and co-writer Noah Baumbach deftly weave comedy, critiques, and people’s actual nostalgia for the toy in this film.
In the trailer, we see Margot Robbie’s Barbie start to get a taste of the real world as her feet flatten out, and Kate McKinnon’s Barbie encourages her to find out what the real world is like with a heels vs. Birkenstocks Matrix reference. Once Robbie’s Barbie and Gosling’s Ken get to the real world, they’re quickly jailed after a skater creep sexually harasses Barbie, and Gosling tries to muscle his way into performing surgery because he’s a “man.” We also see Will Ferrell’s executive character freaking out, so it seems like he’ll be playing a similar role as he did in the other big toy-related Lego Movie.
Along with Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken, the film has a star-studded cast that includes Ariana Greenblatt, Helen Mirren, Will Ferrell, Nicola Coughlan, John Cena, Emma Mackey, Ritu Arya, Simu Liu, Michael Cera, Alexandra Shipp, America Ferrera, Rhea Perlman, Kate McKinnon, Jamie Demetriou, Hari Nef, and Emerald Fennell. Greta Gerwig directed and co-wrote the script with Noah Baumbach. Fortunately, we don’t have much longer to wait to see the film, as it will be hitting theaters on July 21.
In the meantime, we might see Margot Robbie in some other big franchises other than Barbie in the future. Recent rumors suggest that Robbie has been offered the role of Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman for Marvel. After killing it in her role as Harley Quinn over at DC, it would definitely be awesome to see Robbie make the switch to the other side of the comic book aisle and lead the Fantastic Four as well.
We’ll just have to wait and see if those rumors pan out. While we wait for Margot Robbie in Barbie, we can also look forward to seeing her in Asteroid City, which will come out on June 23. The Wes Anderson-directed Asteroid City will also star Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Steve Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Tony Revolori, Jake Ryan, and Jeff Goldblum.