Awards season is the best time of the year, but the ceremonies are rarely the best part. What matters is the press tours where actors, actresses, directors, and the occasional bedraggled writer show off designer goods on red carpets, charm us on talk shows, pose for magazine shoots galore, and have sincere discussions about their art over and over again. The crown jewel is, of course, The Hollywood Reporter roundtables — and if you’re gay, more specifically, the Actress Rountable, which is a yearly reminder of how powerful it was when Saoirse Ronan said “Women!†But something feels off: Margot Robbie, star of one the year’s biggest movie in Barbie, one of the best actresses of our generation, and an almost shoe-in for a Best Actress nomination, should not be there. No, Margot Robbie’s first title is “producer.â€
Robbie’s production company, LuckyChap — which also produced another 2024 awards contender in Saltburn — was the driving force behind getting the Barbie movie made in the way it was. Throughout the current awards season, much of Robbie’s press has been focused on her producing work — she talked about the process in depth with Cillian Murphy in her Actors on Actors interview on ABC News with Greta Gerwig and now in her roundtable. “Obviously, it was a long process to first get the property, then to get it set up at Warners and Mattel and have everyone trust in us as a production company to make it and honor the brand but also do something relevant and interesting,†she says at the roundtable. “One of the biggest fights was convincing everyone that it could be a four-quadrant movie because it had a budget that necessitated it being a four-quadrant movie, and that means getting men to go see it.†Through this run of discussions, it’s become clear that while acting Barbie is an interesting enough process, the real meat of the story is in how Barbie was made in the way it was, and Robbie is an integral part of that process, a driving force in its creation.
So why does this matter? Well, the value of the roundtables is watching different professionals contend with their peers’ way of being. In acting, that can mean watching actresses listening to Kirsten Dunst say she intentionally seeks out work with female directors because it helps “give the opportunity.†But seeing as Barbie is more than anything a feat of producing might, it would be altogether more valuable to watch other producers weigh in on what the producer of Barbie means by “four quadrant movie.†Of course, other members of LuckyChap Tom Ackerley and Josey McNamara may be at the producers roundtable (out January 14), but it’s worth noting they are both men. Missed opportunity to bring the woman who produced the most successful film ever directed by a woman into the conversation. Wearing a bright-pink blazer, of course.