Margot Robbie appeared on the “Talking Pictures” podcast and expressed her continued bafflement over moviegoers hating “Babylon,” her infamous 2022 box office flop co-starring Brad Pitt. Directed by “La La Land” Oscar winner Damian Chazelle, the Hollywood epic centered on silent movie stars in the 1920s as they struggle to adapt during the industry’s transition to talkies. “Babylon” was made for a budget in the $80 million range but bombed with $15 million at the domestic box office and $63 million worldwide.
“I am still saying that,” Robbie said when podcast host Ben Mankiewicz expressed confusion over people not liking “Babylon.” “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?’”
Robbie starred in “Babylon” as the fiery rising star and “It” girl Nellie LaRoy, who was inspired by the real-life Clara Blow. The actor only has positive memories of making “Babylon,” especially when it comes to working with Chazelle.
“Damian is so thorough,” Robbie said. “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 wanted more always. Even when we were prepping.”
“When we were trying to figure out what the accent should be for that character, I gave him 51 different versions of an accent,” she continued. “It was like doing a one woman show. We started off with like Boston. Nellie is from Boston. Here’s what she sounds like if she’s from Arkansas. Then I got specific. Here is Nellie if she was a mixture of Snookie from the ‘Jersey Shore’ and Joe Pesci. Now I’m going to be a little bit of Fran Drescher mixed with Snookie. This is how specific we got. At one point I counted all the voice things I offered him at that point and it was 51.”
While audiences gave “Babylon” the cold shoulder, film critics were fiercely divided over Chazelle’s vision. Variety’s Peter Debruge called the film an “exuberantly messy look at La La Land’s early days — an acid spin on ‘Singin’ in the Rain,’” adding: “‘Babylon’ feels like the last of a certain kind of movie: epic, extravagant and so unreasonably expensive, it would’ve taken pre-pandemic moviegoing habits to make its money back.”
Chazelle himself appeared on the “Talking Pictures” podcast last year and said that he was in the process of writing his next movie, although he was uncertain if he could even get it made after “Babylon” was such a flop.
“I’m in a sort of trepidatious state of mind, but I have no illusions,” the director said. “I won’t get a budget of ‘Babylon’ size any time soon, or at least not on this next one. Certainly, in financial terms, ‘Babylon’ didn’t work at all. You try to not have that effect what you’re doing creatively, but, at some level, it can’t help but affect it. But maybe that’s okay? I have very mixed mind about it. Who knows. Maybe I won’t be able to get this one made. I have no idea. We’ll have to wait and see.”
Listen to Robbie’s latest interview on the “Talking Pictures” podcast here.
