In addition to Margot Robbie being the Barbie of our dreams in the 2023 Greta Gerwig movie, the Aussie actress is apparently something of a doll as a big-time movie producer in real life. The latest producing effort from Robbie’s LuckyChap Productions is the coming-of-age comedy My Old Ass, starring Aubrey Plaza and newcomer Maisy Stella. When CinemaBlend spoke to the director of the latest of the 2024 movies now playing in theaters, she shared one sweet gesture Robbie did on set that was totally giving Barbie.
Megan Park wrote and directed My Old Ass, a movie that is both completely earnest and hilarious about a high school senior Elliott (Stella) who conjures up her older self (Plaza) while going on a birthday mushroom trip high with her friends. During our interview, Park shared what Margot Robbie was like on the set as a producer with these words:
She brought me a present every day to set. So, I remember walking in and she was using my bunkie as her office during the day and she was like sweeping the floor for me . She was like, I just thought you'd wanna come home to like a nice clean, and I was like ‘I do really want to. Thank you so much for doing that. That's so nice!’ She's incredibly generous and thoughtful.
Margot Robbie must be single-handedly raising the bar for movie producers! Of course, it’s not considerably surprising considering she is the actress behind Barbie. Park’s words to me reminded me of something Ryan Gosling said about Robbie while they were making Barbie. Here is it (per Variety):
She left a pink present with a pink bow, from Barbie to Ken, every day while we were filming. They were all beach-related. Like puka shells, or a sign that says ‘Pray for surf.’ Because Ken’s job is just beach. I’ve never quite figured out what that means. But I felt like she was trying to help Ken understand, through these gifts that she was giving.
How cute is it that Margot Robbie continued her gift tradition on the set of My Old Ass? As it turns out, Ryan Gosling’s Ken wasn’t the only special one after he previously shared she gave him daily Ken presents. The actress/producer must be really into gift giving while on productions. Megan Park also said this about her collaboration with Robbie:
I mean, her whole company, LuckyChap, they're just so amazing to work with. So it's like, no wonder they get so much repeat business from their directors. They really are the dream producers. Margot was up in Muskoka with us, and she's the perfect mix of being somebody who's – she's obviously like an actor and really understands kind of how to work with them and how to support the directors, and was really helpful with the script as well. And, she was just like a blast… She's like the dream producer. I'm working with her on my next movie and also a TV show. I feel like that says everything.
While we don’t know what future projects Megan Park and Margot Robbie are working on together next, it’s not a huge surprise she is doing repeat business considering she has done so on prior occasions before Park. For example, she worked with Emerald Fennell on both Promising Young Woman and Saltburn, and she's getting ready to star with Ryan Gosling in an Ocean’s prequel movie.
While the title of My Old Ass may sound crass, the movie itself is a really endearing watch as Elliott attempts to follow her older self’s words of wisdom about how to live her life better after getting spooked about her 39-year-old counterpart being a childless grad student. The hardest advice for Elliott to listen to ends up being a young man named Chad, whom Plaza’s Elliott suggests she stay away from, despite the teen finding him harmless. You can My Old Ass in theaters right now.
