RDJ says Margot Robbie isn’t getting enough credit for Barbie

Last Updated on March 5, 2024

Margot Robbie’s run on the awards circuit won’t extend nearly as far as many think she’s deserving of, as the actress was snubbed (if that’s even a thing) by the Academy Awards. When the nominations were announced, there was immediate uproar and disbelief over both Robbie and director Greta Gerwig missing out in their respective categories for Barbie. Some thought Robbie didn’t make the cut because of Barbie’s genre, while others truly felt the star didn’t give as high-caliber of a performance as the eventual nominees. Some, however, may not have been able to see just how complex the performance was. Now, Robert Downey Jr. – who is on his way to his first Oscar for fellow summer blockbuster Oppenheimer – is defending Robbie, saying she isn’t getting nearly enough credit for her work.

Speaking at a SAG-AFTRA Foundation event (via Indiewire), RDJ noted, “It never fails to impress and remind me how little you need to do to be effective…Just the simplest version of expression, that’s what the camera wants. The closer the camera gets, the more it wants it. Time and time again, it’s demonstrated that it’s super effective…Margot Robbie is not getting enough credit, in my opinion…America [Ferrera] has this amazing speech. And by the way, she nails it! I’m watching it and go, ‘Wow, that was a really tough one. That’s like a one-act play. The whole movie hinges on it.’ But it’s the cuts away to Robbie so actively listening that I realize Greta [Gerwig] is really on to something here. But it’s Robbie who had to trust, and it’s hard when someone who has the fucking two-page passage, and they go, ‘OK, now let’s jump in and get Bob,’ and you’re like, ‘I’ve been listening to this all day and now I have to make it work!’”

While Margot Robbie will have to root on fellow Barbie stars Ferrera and Ryan Gosling (both nominated in the supporting categories), she does have a nod for producing the Best Picture nominee. Outside of an Oscar nomination, Robbie has been recognized consistently throughout awards season, earning nods from the Screen Actors Guild and BAFTA, with the Golden Globes of course putting her in the Musical or Comedy category. Which brings up another point: the Academy is far from keen on comedy, as it hardly gets recognized and when it does it’s normally in the supporting categories, as if the Academy is saying in code that comedy will never be the prestige attraction of drama (or, the lead categories).

There is definitely a case that Margot Robbie was deserving of a Best Actress nomination for Barbie, worthy of bumping a name from the list of five. She – with help from Gerwig, as RDJ suggests – brings some poppy laughs early on but shows that there is a lining of tragedy in both the character and our society as she views it, making Barbie far more intricate than the plastic doll we all expected when the project was first announced.

Do you agree that Margot Robbie hasn’t gotten enough credit for Barbie? Was she snubbed? Share your thoughts below!