The 'Wolf of Wall Street' actress gets honest as she talks about her career as a movie producer and what it feels like when she's pitching her project to the studio bosses.
- Jan 5, 2024
AceShowbiz - Margot Robbie felt like a "con artist" as a producer. The 33-year-old star is famous for her on-screen work but she also co-owns production company LuckyChap Entertainment and insisted her two jobs are very different.
"It feels like selling. It feels like I'm a con artist convincing everyone that something insane is actually going to work," she said when asked if pitching a new film feels like auditioning for a role during the Hollywood Reporter's Actresses Round Table.
"Whereas auditioning feels like … The funny thing is, I'm not good at lying. And people are like, 'Don't you lie for a living?' No, I've never seen acting as that. I feel like acting is making something so incredibly truthful, and making it sound like the most honest thing that could ever come out of your mouth. Whereas pitching, it's not lying, either, but it's a lot of promising something you don't actually know."
Margot recalled pitching "Barbie" and promising studio bosses it would be a huge success. She said, "When you're trying to get a project up and running, as those at the table who produce know, it's like you're in selling mode. I was pitching it."
"I was like, 'When you pair Spielberg with dinosaurs, what do you get? A billion dollars. When you pair Greta and Barbie, you are going to make a billion dollars.' I was like, 'God, I hope this works out. I just promised everyone a billion dollars.' You just have to double down."
"I think as a producer, you've got to make your choices and then you back that choice. I will bleed myself out before I tell a director they can't have something they need. I'm like, 'If that's what you need for this, then let me go. I'll make that happen.' That's your job. So there was a lot of just completely doubling down on some crazy big, bold ideas."
Meanwhile, the "I, Tonya" actress finds shooting a funny scene much more difficult than a dramatic moment. She said, "I do think comedy's harder than drama. I feel less scared that I'm going to pull off a big screaming, crying scene than I'm going to pull off a funny scene."
"I know I can scream and shout and cry and do all that stuff, but can I make people laugh? I don't know. But I think it requires the same level of commitment, that it's all-in. Because if you take even an inch off the pedal there, it's going to fall flat on its face."
