Margot Robbie is one of the biggest stars in the world, and her big bet to produce and star in Barbie paid off splendidly. Not every movie in Robbie’s career was a success, though, and some of the failures apparently surprise the actress more than others. Among the biggest surprises was Damien Chazelle’s Babylon, which was released to a mixed critical response at the end of 2022 and wildly underperformed on a pretty significant budget, making just $63 million worldwide on an $80 million budget.
“I am still saying that,” Robbie said during an appearance on the Talking Pictures podcast. “I love it. I don’t get it either. I know I am biased because I am very close to the project and I obviously believe in it, but I still can’t figure out why people hated it. I wonder if in 20 years people are going to be like, ‘Wait, Babylon didn’t do well at the time?’ Like when you hear that Shawshank Redemption was a failure at the time and you’re like like, ‘How is that possible?’”
The movie is set in Hollywood in the 1920s and follows several characters as they navigate the transition from silent cinema into sound. Robbie plays Nellie LaRoy, a short-lived it girl who finds her career upended by the introduction of sound.
“Damian is so thorough,” Robbie said of making the film. “Do you know what I loved so much about working with him? I felt like no one had really put their foot to the floor with the gas, but he wanted that all the time. He always wanted more. Even when we were prepping.”
