What do Jurassic Park and Barbie have in common? Absolutely nothing! And believe it or not, this was one of the most crucial arguments ingeniously employed by the talented Margot Robbie to get the wheels in motion for the captivating pastel pink social commentary film project.
This past weekend marked the highly anticipated premiere of Barbie, and as expected, the theaters were ablaze with all shades of pink, from costumes and branding to even fast food offerings. Warner Bros. will certainly be delighted with its decision to release this fantasy comedy alongside Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.
However, according to Margot Robbie, none of this magic would have been possible without Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park. During a recent interview with Collider, Robbie revealed how she cleverly incorporated Jurassic Park into her pitch to Warner Bros., saying:
I think my pitch in the green-light meeting was the studios have prospered so much when they’re brave enough to pair a big idea with a visionary director. And then I gave a series of examples like, “dinosaurs and [Steven] Spielberg,” that and that, that and that – pretty much naming anything that’s been incredible and made a ton of money for the studios over the years. And I was like, “And now you’ve got Barbie and Greta Gerwig.” And I think I told them that it’d make a billion dollars, which maybe I was overselling, but we had a movie to make, okay?!
In a similar fashion, Margot Robbie drew an analogy between her Barbie pitch and what the initial reactions of studio executives must have been when they first heard the Jurassic Park pitch from Spielberg.
Can you imagine that first meeting? They’re like, “Dinosaurs? I don’t know, I mean, yeah? That might turn out kind of silly.” And then here we are decades later being like, “That’s the greatest movie ever.”
In Robbie’s defense, Barbie has turned out to be an absolute blockbuster for Warner Bros. The film hit the ground running, raking in an impressive $155 million during its opening weekend and shattering box office and Hollywood records left and right.
With its current trajectory, Barbie is well on its way to joining the billion-dollar club by the time it wraps up its theatrical run (Robbie will surely have an easy time selling her next pitch to Warner Bros.).
Director Greta Gerwig has revealed that she handpicked Robbie (who also serves as a producer in the film) and her co-star, Ryan Gosling, for the Barbie and Ken roles, but according to Robbie, she would have been content playing any other character in the film.
I didn’t want whoever our director was going to be – Greta being the first choice, but if she had said no – I didn’t want our director to feel pressured to put me in the role. So I was just really upfront about like, “I won’t be offended in the slightest. We could go to anyone. Whatever story you want to tell and whoever you want that to be, I support that. I’ve got skin in the game as a producer, I don’t have skin in the game as an actor, so be free with that choice.” And she was like, “Shut up, I want to write this for you.” And I was like, “You might feel pressured to say that, but …” and we did that dance for a while. And then eventually I just accepted that she did want me to play the role, and then she wrote it. She wrote me in and she wrote Ryan in, and it was our names printed in the script from the get-go: “Barbie – Margot,” “Ken – Ryan Gosling.
Having watched the film, it’s crystal clear that Robbie was the perfect pick for the role after all, and the same could be said about her co-star – despite online rows about his age. However, the road to bringing the Mattel doll to life on the big screen has been a long and weary one.
Before Margot Robbie was ever involved in the project, Trainwreck’s Amy Schumer was initially cast to play Barbie. But fate had different plans, and she eventually abandoned the project, citing “scheduling conflicts.” However, she later revealed it was actually “creative differences” that led to her departure, back when the script was being written by Hillary Winston.
After Schumer’s departure, Anne Hathaway took over the lead role and played a crucial role in choosing Alethea Jones as the director. Olivia Milch also joined as the scriptwriter, but sadly, Sony lost the rights in 2018, and Warner Bros. took over, overhauling the project with a new production team. The rest is history.
Barbie, with a production budget of $128–145 million, has already earned an astronomical $337 million worldwide in just one weekend, securing its spot as the 11th highest-grossing film of the year.
