Emma Mackey's Barbie Casting Was Meant To Be A Joke

Barbie dolls are mass-manufactured. It's easy to imagine a "Barbie" movie where all the denizens of Barbieland are played by lead stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, respectively; clones dressed up in different outfits like the dolls themselves. That's not the movie that director Greta Gerwig made though.

It's important to remember that in the Barbie brand's decades-long existence, there have been endless permutations of the original (check out /Film's guide to Barbie history here). This allows little girls of all different appearances and backgrounds to see themselves in their favorite dolls. Thus, Barbieland is only spiritually a land of clones — the Barbies and Kens may all have similar personalities, but each one has a different actor.

Though Barbieland is incredibly diverse, one of the actresses was cast because she resembles Margot Robbie. Who was it? Emma Mackey, who played the Nobel Prize-winning Physicist Barbie. Many have argued/joked that Robbie and Mackey look almost identical; Robbie says that people have come up to her and said, "I loved you in 'Sex Education.'" That Netflix comedy series was Mackey's breakout part, where she played "bad girl" Maeve Wiley. Apparently, Robbie thanks people rather than correcting them for the confusion.

Robbie, speaking to Buzzfeed alongside Ryan Gosling (and a pack of puppies), was asked what it was like working alongside her "doppelgänger" in "Barbie." She revealed that Mackey being cast was an executive decision from her and Gerwig: "[They] thought it would be funny." The plan was there would be a joke about how similar Robbie's Barbie and Mackey's Barbie look. But if you've seen the movie, you won't remember that part.

Robbie explained to the interviewer (and Gosling):

"Once we got all dressed up as our Barbies, we were like, 'We don't actually look that similar.' Like, when she's got her brown hair and I've got my blonde hair, we don't look that similar, so we didn't put that joke in the movie."

I have to agree that the resemblance is overstated; Robbie and Mackey look vaguely similar, not uncannily so. Robbie has a rounder face, smaller eyes, and softer dimples. Mackey herself agrees with me, telling the Independent:

"I genuinely just don't see it at all. But it's fine. I wish people would stop comparing. Like, it's lovely to be compared to Margot Robbie, but mostly I'd rather people focus on the jobs that we're both doing rather than what we look like. Hollywood churns out people who look the same and we love to put people in boxes. It's just a thing that we do as a species, we categorize people, we always have."

While Mackey may be over the jokes about her and Robbie, it wasn't enough for her to say no to "Barbie." She was all too happy to work with Greta Gerwig, her "absolute hero." Considering that "Barbie" also includes "Sex Education" star Ncuti Gatwa as one of the Kens, I'd wager that Mackey's admiration of Gerwig's work goes both ways.

"Barbie" is playing in theaters.