Five talking points from Cillian Murphy and Margot Robbie’s Actors on Actors conversation
Picture: Barbie Inc Margot 2023 Entertainment Robbie © In Bros Warner
The stars at either side of Barbenheimer — Cillian Murphy and Margot Robbie — sat down together for a conversation about the cultural phenomenon that took the world by storm this summer.
With Robbie’s movie and Murphy’s both launched on the big screen on the same day in July 2023, people across the world found themselves debating which of the (very different) movies they should see first.
The internet exploded with memes and commentary around 'Barbenheimer' and now, at last, we get to hear about it from the actors themselves.
Cork actor Cillian Murphy and Australian star Margot Robbie sat down together as part of Variety’s Actors on Actors series. Here’s what we learned from their conversation.
Kicking off the conversation, Murphy congratulates Robbie on her “reasonably successful film”, which she was also a producer of. Speaking about , Robbie says “90%” of her was “certain it would be a big deal and a massive hit”.
However, she says she didn’t know it was going to be the cultural phenomenon that it ended up being. Posing the same question to Murphy, she asks whether he anticipated that “so many people were going to watch a movie about the making of the atomic bomb”.
“No. I don’t think any of us did,” he says. “Christopher Nolan was always determined that it would be released in the summer as a big tentpole movie. That was always his plan. And he has this superstition around that date, the 21st,” he adds referring to the release date of July 21st.
Cillian Murphy on the impact of #Barbie and #Oppenheimer: “Both of these films show the appetite that the audience has for cinema.” #ActorsOnActors https://t.co/5IwVjNmFK0 pic.twitter.com/uVxs3p0ITX
— Variety (@Variety) December 5, 2023
Robbie is admittedly a big fan.
“In my opinion, there are two kinds of people in this world. There are the people who are obsessed with , and then there’s the people who haven’t seen . I obviously sit in the first category,” she says, before asking Murphy if there is going to be a spinoff movie.
“I mean, I’m open to the idea. I’ve always thought that if there’s more story to tell…,” he says.
Robbie replies: “Please do it. Please!”
According to Robbie, one of the producers from called her, suggesting that she move the release date for .
She tells Murphy: “He was like ‘I think you guys should move your date.’ And I was like ‘We’re not moving our date. If you’re scared to be up against us, then you move your date.’ And he’s like, ‘We’re not moving our date. I just think it’d be better for you to move.’ And I was like, ‘We’re not moving!’ I think this is a really great pairing, actually."
“It’s a perfect double billing, and .”
Murphy says the decision not to move “was a good instinct”.
“Clearly the world agreed. Thank God,” Robbie says. “The fact that people were going and being like, ‘Oh, watch first, then .’ I was like, ‘See? People like everything.’ People are weird.”
The contrast between the bubble gum pink world of and the dark scenes in was one of the main talking points during the summer of 2023 and in this conversation, it was no different. Murphy is dressed in black while Robbie sports a bright pink polka-dot blazer.
“We should talk about the costumes. So you’re clearly still not sick of pink then?,” Murphy asks her, referring to her blazer.
“I’m not done with pink yet. Yeah, the costumes were incredible. I mean, you just can’t have a Barbie movie without the colour pink. And everyone really got on board with that. I’d make a On-Wednesdays-we-wear-pink day,” she says, asking Murphy if he knows the reference from (he does not).
“On Wednesdays, they wear pink. And so if you didn’t wear pink on set, you got a fine,” she explains.
Admitting that she is a “big fan” of Murphy (so much so that she loves his “sleep story” on the Calm app), Robbie says she has heard that he is “not that aware of memes and things like that”.
“First of all, is that true? And second of all, if that is true, were you even aware of the Barbenheimer phenomenon, or were you just blissfully unaware because you use a dial-up phone or something?” she asks.
“I have two teenage boys. I do know what a meme is. Now I know that there are memes about me not knowing what a meme is,” Murphy says.
Cillian Murphy: “I do know what a meme is. Now I know that there are memes about me not knowing what a meme is.”https://t.co/5IwVjNmFK0 pic.twitter.com/wIqLQp4U01
— Variety (@Variety) December 5, 2023
However, there was a time “a long time ago” when he did not know what it was.
“I think children started that stuff, right? Now that it’s become this sort of meme that’s eating itself, I am aware. But it’s mostly because of people either sending it to me or showing me and saying, ‘Look, you gotta look at this’,” he says.
He says he did see some of the Barbenheimer fan art which was “impossible to avoid” while Robbie confirms that despite speculation, the marketing departments for the two movies were not in cahoots.
“I think it happened because both movies were good. In fact, that summer, there was a huge diversity of stuff in the cinema, and I think it just connected in a way that you or I or the studios or anybody could never have predicted,” Murphy explains while Robbie says that you “you can’t force that or orchestrate that”.
“No, and it may never happen again,” he adds.