Either Margot Robbie is stuck in a Method acting exercise or the actress may very well be the living embodiment of Barbie.
Earlier in January, the Academy Awards nominations announcement left some Barbie fans crying glitter tears. Greta Gerwig’s film, which quickly became the highest-grossing film ever directed by a woman, received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Supporting Actress for America Ferrera, Supporting Actor for Ryan Gosling, Costume Design, Production Design, and Adapted Screenplay for Gerwig and Noah Baumbach. Missing from that list, however, were Gerwig for Best Director and Robbie for Best Actress — stark omissions that prompted even Hillary Clinton to offer her support to the women, tweeting, “You’re both so much more than Kenough.”
Though Gosling and Ferrera had previously expressed their disappointment in the Academy, Robbie addressed the discourse for the first time on Tuesday night during a panel at a special SAG screening, according to Deadline. “There’s no way to feel sad when you know you’re this blessed,” Robbie said, noting that she’s “beyond ecstatic that we’ve got eight Academy Award nominations — it’s so wild.”
“Obviously I think Greta should be nominated as a director because what she did is a once-in-a-career, once-in-a-lifetime thing, what she pulled off, it really is. But it’s been an incredible year for all the films,” Robbie said. “We set out to do something that would shift culture, affect culture, just make some sort of impact … And it’s already done that, and in some ways more than we ever dreamed it would.”
One example of that impact, as Robbie noted at the screening, was the film’s success as a Feminism 101 course for straight men. She recalled listening in on a bachelor party in a pub in Scotland arguing over whether or not the movie was culturally important. The takes ranged from “Dude, it is a cultural moment, don’t you want to be a part of culture?” to “I’ll never see it,” but by the end of the conversation, Robbie said Dude No. 2 had been convinced.
“I just suspect it’s bigger than us,” she added. “It’s bigger than this movie, it’s bigger than our industry.”
Thank you, Margot, for being the positivity role model we so desperately need. Besides: Who needs awards when you’ve already got an award-winning attitude??