Robbie, speaking to Buzzfeed alongside Ryan Gosling (and a pack of puppies), was asked what it was like working alongside her “doppelgänger” in “Barbie.” She revealed that Mackey being cast was an executive decision from her and Gerwig: “[They] thought it would be funny.” The plan was there would be a joke about how similar Robbie’s Barbie and Mackey’s Barbie look. But if you’ve seen the movie, you won’t remember that part.
Robbie explained to the interviewer (and Gosling):
“Once we got all dressed up as our Barbies, we were like, ‘We don’t actually look that similar.’ Like, when she’s got her brown hair and I’ve got my blonde hair, we don’t look that similar, so we didn’t put that joke in the movie.”
I have to agree that the resemblance is overstated; Robbie and Mackey look vaguely similar, not uncannily so. Robbie has a rounder face, smaller eyes, and softer dimples. Mackey herself agrees with me, telling the Independent:
“I genuinely just don’t see it at all. But it’s fine. I wish people would stop comparing. Like, it’s lovely to be compared to Margot Robbie, but mostly I’d rather people focus on the jobs that we’re both doing rather than what we look like. Hollywood churns out people who look the same and we love to put people in boxes. It’s just a thing that we do as a species, we categorize people, we always have.”
While Mackey may be over the jokes about her and Robbie, it wasn’t enough for her to say no to “Barbie.” She was all too happy to work with Greta Gerwig, her “absolute hero.” Considering that “Barbie” also includes “Sex Education” star Ncuti Gatwa as one of the Kens, I’d wager that Mackey’s admiration of Gerwig’s work goes both ways.
“Barbie” is playing in theaters.