Margot Robbie Says Barbie’s Journey Is Like “Buddha’s Journey to Enlightenment” (Exclusive)

Barbie is hitting theaters this month, and moviegoers are eager to see Margot Robbie play the titular doll. The film was helmed by Greta Gerwig, who is best known for directing Lady Bird and Little Women (2019). With a filmmaker like Gerwig tackling Barbie, fans are expecting more than just your average toy movie. Recently, ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with Robbie about the film, and we asked her about taking on such a “mythical” character which led to Robbie comparing Barbie’s journey to “Buddha’s journey to enlightenment” and the book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. 

“It was very clear. Greta said right from one of our first conversations, she was like, ‘I think Barbie goes on the classic hero journey.’ Kind of like the Buddha’s journey to enlightenment, is the journey that Barbie should go on,” Robbie explained. 

“Which is, when you know Greta, you’re like, ‘Of course that’s what Greta’s take on Barbie would be,’ but anyone else would never say that in a million years, and as soon as she said it, I was like, ‘Wow.’ It’s weird. I was reading Hero with a Thousand Faces. A hundred faces? A thousand? You know that book? …James Campbell.”

“Anyways, it’s all of that,” Robbie added. “Yeah, it’s a book that has a lot to do with the hero’s journey, et cetera. But she started there and I realized like, ‘Oh, I haven’t really done this before.’ I haven’t played the lead character that many times. And when I have, it hasn’t necessarily been the classic hero journey before. So as far as the approach as an actor, I did the things I normally do when I prep for a character. But because it was this classic hero’s journey that I hadn’t really done before, it ended up being a lot of conversations with Greta about life and happiness and what it means to be alive and just big existential questions and I didn’t see that coming.”

What Is Barbie About?

In Barbie, to live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken. From Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig comes Barbie, which hits theaters on July 21st. Barbie stars Oscar-nominees Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, alongside America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Michael Cera, Ariana Greenblatt, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, and Will Ferrell. The film also stars Ana Cruz Kayne, Emma Mackey, Hari Nef, Alexandra Shipp, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Scott Evans, Jamie Demetriou, Connor Swindells, Sharon Rooney, Nicola Coughlan, Ritu Arya, Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Dua Lipa and Oscar-winner Helen Mirren. Gerwig directed Barbie from a screenplay by Gerwig & Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach, based on Barbie by Mattel.