Hihi~ Good morning, everyone
You must have recently brushed the pink "Barbie Show" of "Harlequin" Margot Robbie, right?
The ultra-high frequency exposure is because the live-action movie "Barbie" with her as the heroine is released worldwide, and today (21st) we can also see it in the cinema, have you bought a ticket?
Let's take a brief look at the classic Barbie look she recreated at premieres around the world, the black and white striped Barbie that first appeared in 1959, the pink professional suit in 1985... The big names are Versace, Bottega Veneta, Prada, Valentino and so on.
When the trailer came out, I was looking forward to it, and this scene suddenly activated the memory of the dead: Barbie, who only wore high heels, was always padded with his feet! The live-action version even captured this detail in place
"Rotten Tomatoes" film critics scored 89, which is a good result. "Rolling Stone" even gave an exaggerated comment that "may be the most subversive blockbuster of the 21st century", and after watching it, the reputation is indeed very good (the selling point also includes the length of the film is no more than two hours):
"Too many laughs, perfect summer movie"
"It is an awakening of the pink power that says the roll of patriarchy"
"What Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie create in this cheerful, hilarious and incredibly subversive feminist blockbuster is incredible to you. Because for decades, this doll has been seen as a negative symbol of women's rights"
"The wonderful performance of Ken played by the high commander in the film deserves to win an Oscar"
Publicity is more passively "deserted" than the passively "deserted" "Oppenheimer" next door (finally after the trial can be released!). ), "Barbie" can be said to be a heavy book, very big battle: in one breath launched the same character Barbie sales skyrocketed, the real Barbie dream house Airbnb, the world joint sale of peripherals sold out, global landmarks to create "pink fever"...
The covers of major magazines also went in waves, almost all of them were enthusiastic words of praise~
In fact, this character has considered "Wonder Woman" Gal Gadot, comedian Amy Schumer, and even Anne Hathaway, who is more in line with the mainstream aesthetic of Hollywood.
The reason for choosing Margot Robbie in the end is mainly because the CEO of Barbie manufacturer Mattel believes that "Barbie must look like Margot, and she conforms to the traditional impression of Barbie from the outside world."
Looking at the appearance alone, Margot Robbie, known as "the sexiest blonde in history" and "the new Marilyn Monroe", is very Barbie.
But in fact, she has challenged various roles since her debut, not the same vase beauty, the gold worship girl in "The Wolf of Wall Street", the crazy clown girl in the DC universe, the figure skating queen Tonya, the ambitious actress who climbed up from the bottom and so on.
Also an Australian hometown, she is also known as "Hollywood's next Nicole Kidman" by industry insiders. And Nicole Kidman, who has already won an Oscar, has an unexpectedly high evaluation of her:
I didn't have the ability to control my destiny and build my own business like she did.
Are you also curious about why this 33-year-old Australian actress, in addition to her beautiful skin, became a big heroine who symbolizes the "awakening of pink power"?
01
Cliché and outdated "Barbie"? A new role for yourself to fight back
"Barbie" is set in the virtual Barbie doll world, telling the story of the heroine Barbie who escaped from the perfect pink bubble world and encountered sexual harassment and gender inequality in the real world.
"If you love Barbie, this movie is for you. If you hate Barbie, this movie is for you. Margot added: "If you're indifferent to Barbie or haven't thought about Barbie in years, this movie is for you." ”
This is a film that is full of suspense and controversy in the early stages of filming.
Greta Gerwig, the female choreographer who filmed "Miss Bird" and "Little Women", was initially questioned about "self-destructive reputation". Ryan Goss, who played Barbie's boyfriend "Ken", made the skating Reuters picture ridiculed as "looking too old".
The biggest controversy is: Is this a feminist movie? Can the brand image of Barbie convey female power?
In 1959, Barbie's original black-and-white striped swimsuit version of the image was a reference to the blonde Marilyn Monroe, who had large breasts and a thin waist. Barbie dolls, which have been on the market for more than 60 years and have sold more than 1 billion units, can be said to be the "cultural icons" that have influenced many little girls.
But this original female aesthetic full of male gaze, perfect to unreal "impossible body" has long been outdated, and Mattel, the Barbie brand company that almost fell into crisis, began to drastically change the appearance of Barbie dolls in 2016.
Today, Barbie has 175 combinations of different body types, races, and skin colors — and the slogan has become the "She Can Be Anyone" that encourages diversity.
There are many Barbies in the movie, presidents, justices, journalists, postmen and other identities~
Margot played the original version of the blonde girl, who got up in the morning without a messy hairstyle, could change clothes in a circle, fell from the sky to get into the car, and slide into the pool, and the "childhood game" was quite restored.
Like the aforementioned scene of her hunched over her feet and walking out of her high heels, it triggered a wave of discussion, and the serious traditional media also invited an orthopedic surgeon to analyze the possibility in a serious way (the actor himself answered: impossible, holding the pole + feet against the adhesive 8 times).
Although you poke at your childhood memories, do you also want to borrow lines to sigh that Margot is "really like a corny Barbie"?
But is that really the case?
Can play Barbie, just like Nicole Kidman said "control your own destiny", in fact, this movie also has Margot's own production company LuckyChap involved.
She took the initiative to approach Mattel in 2018, hoping to take on the Barbie movie project, and said in the first meeting, "We will respect your brand, but we will not avoid sensitive topics."
She pulled director Greta Gerwig to meet with Mattel executives many times. In the end, the big company that shouted "we can sell well without making a movie" at the beginning was moved by Margot and even asked her to star by name, "She is interesting and deep, and she is the ideal producer and actor to bring Barbie to the screen in a fresh and relevant way." ”
Mattel paid her $12.5 million — the highest-paid actress of the year we talked about earlier. Now it looks like that number will rise.
The box office of the movie is expected to be $140 million in the opening weekend, and Margot optimistically estimates that the global box office can reach $1 billion, and if she also signs a box office sharing agreement of at least 10% like Tom, the data will be refreshed in minutes.
By the way, Margot also brought in Harry Potter producer David to create Barbie Utopia, saying, "I've never seen a movie with so much pink." ”
In addition, we will talk about her fate with "Harry Potter" later~
02
Use beauty to help yourself get started? Her ambitions don't stop there
Before the pink Barbie, many people's impression of Margot was "blonde sexy girl", and her life was once labeled as overlapping with the role: a working-class child, using beauty to help him make a mark.
To put it mildly "working-class", her parents divorced when she was a child, and her mother, who was a physical therapist, raised Margot's four siblings, and she still has no understanding of her father, who abandoned her family and ignored him: "I don't know him at all, and I don't like him." ”
Many reports were full of arrogance and prejudice about her upbringing: "A family of five has only one bathroom, and this environment can make people burn with ambition; Feral children from the Australian outback have a thirst for wealth since childhood."
Because she likes acting since she was a child, she began to work at Subway and bars very early on, helping people clean the house, while seeking audition opportunities, and when she found the phone number of the production team, she bombarded herself every day until one day she was transferred to the producer.
She herself is a loyal fan
She began brushing her face and playing soy sauce in various Australian soap operas at the age of 15, and her first chance to be seen was "The Elephant Princess" - which also features the "Thor" brothers, "I acted with Liam Hemsworth before he became famous". ”
Determined to move from Australia to Hollywood, she struggled to continue playing soy sauce in various dramas while spending two years figuring out how to correct her accent, "sounding like an American."
It took 8 years to get the role of letting the outside world know her: Naomi, the sexy wife of Xiao Lizi in "The Wolf of Wall Street".
"The sexiest blonde ever" - this was what the great director Martin Scorsese demanded of the role, and almost all actresses in their early twenties in Hollywood at that time auditioned.
When Margot, wearing jeans and leather boots, arrived on the scene, she was called out by the casting director: go out and buy the tightest skirt and the highest heels you can buy, and that's Naomi.
Hollywood has never lacked the beautiful appearance and flesh of dreams of stardom, but only she undrafted and slapped A-list superstar Xiao Lizi during the audition - such a path cannot be copied casually, and she herself said that every minute is self-destruction, and she can only pack up and go back to her hometown.
In fact, she can win this role because her small role in the American drama "Pan Am" has attracted the attention of the director, and this wanton accidental slap is just in line with the character's violent temper.
The film made her famous and won the MTV Movie Breakthrough Performance Award that year. But she didn't like being labeled "blonde Monroe," repeatedly stressing that her hair color was brown, and only in recent years did she let go, "After a few years of blonde hair, I finally fell in love with it." But I don't have a preference, I like both".
In the early days, there was no right to speak, and the upper cover was required to wear a swimsuit to show off the curves of the body. But she insisted, "I'm not a model, I want people to see me as an actor." ”
In patriarchal Hollywood, Margot, who doesn't have enough background and fame, doesn't have much choice over roles.
But she didn't want to play the sexy blonde over and over again, turn her head and fatten and tan and play ugly, playing a black peasant woman and a queen with maggots, "I don't want to be categorized, so I have to show that I can play different roles." ”
Creating her own opportunities when there are too few opportunities is one of the reasons she came up with the idea of starting her own production company early on.
There are many Hollywood stars who are producers themselves, but most of them are accumulated after success. For example, Tom Cruise, who just talked to everyone, and Reese Witherspoon, who has successfully made herself the richest actress in recent years.
In 2013, while filming "French Suite", Margot met Tom Ekley, then assistant to the director and now her husband and career partner.
Speaking of which, this "Tom" was once misrepresented as a rich second-generation and resource coffee, who played soy sauce in "Harry Potter" when he was a child, and was a Slytherin student who was pushed away by Malfoy.
She set up her own production company at the age of 24, starting out in a small shared apartment in London, and continued to work with big directors while seeking production opportunities.
The stories behind are familiar to everyone, "Birds of Prey", "Queen Mary", "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", "Breaking News", "Babylon", etc., are all works that have been nominated and certified by the academy and have been praised by the audience.
Her fattening and ugly "I, Queen of Flowers" that won the Golden Globe and Oscar nomination also became a turning point in her career.
Time magazine listed her as one of the "100 Most Influential People", and Martin Scorsese wrote her review: "With the energy to give her all, the down-to-earth and hard-working tenacity, she is the Margot Robbie like no other."
LuckyChap, who was founded with the idea of "making women's stories," involved a female story or a female storyteller, such as Golden Globe nominated "The Girl with a Bright Future" and "The Maid" for Netflix.
Greta likened Margot and LuckyChap to "guardians of female talent in Hollywood": "As an actor and producer, Margot will give it her all when she has a glimmer of certainty, and her heart is firm and there is no doubt." ”
The poster slogan for Barbie reads: Barbie can do anything, and he is just Ken.
In reality, the director also jokingly called Tom Tom Achille and David, who were busy in the "Barbie" crew, "Ken Tom and Ken David".
Margot, 33, is working on dozens of films and series, almost entirely written by women, which also allows her to set the tone for her role: no longer being asked to wear shorter skirts and weigh less. It also gave her the confidence to say: "I don't want to take another script where I'm my wife or girlfriend – just a catalyst for a male storyline."
Some people say that Margot Robbie, who comes from the bottom, can succeed, in addition to the beauty blessed by luck, there is also the ambition to dominate herself. In interviews, she generously mentioned the injustice that "men are praised for their ambitions, and women are criticized as strong shrews".
I also like Nicole Kidman's summary of her being a woman: For me, I define ambition as being passionate about doing what I want to do and not being shut out because I'm a woman.
Whether you are in the entertainment industry or the business world, no matter what you want to do, this applies to all of us~
Come here today, if you like the new "Barbie Power", remember to click "Like" to tell me, and welcome to forward "Barbie Ambition" for more people to see.
Would you go to the cinema to see Barbie?
Which character of Margot Robbie are you impressed by?
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