Margot Robbie has a history of sharing her feet on film in roles ranging from Wolf of Wall Street to Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, The Suicide Squad and now Barbie. When the first trailer for Barbie dropped, fans all rallied around one perfect shot of the actress' foot in the famous Mattel pose created so the doll could rock heels at any time of day or night. However, at CinemaCon 2023, it became clear that feet are actually a major part of the plot.
CinemaCon trotted out Greta Gerwig, America Ferrera, Ryan Gosling, and Robbie herself ahead of a new and in depth look at the film. While Gosling amused by talking about all the “fake tanner” in his sheets after agreeing to the role of Ken, we also learned a bit more about what to expect from Barbie when it finally hits the 2023 movie release schedule later this summer. In new footage screened for theater owners and employees Warner Bros. revealed more than just that one trailer scene is actually about feet.
How Feet Are At The Core Barbie’s Entire Plot
In Barbieland, everything is pleasant and everyone is having the time of their lives all of the time. Except for Robbie’s Barbie, who is increasingly seeing a negative side to the world that simply wasn’t there before. At first the character starts doing odd things like thinking about death. However, things take a dire turn when her perfectly arched foot – yes that perfectly arched foot shown in the first trailer for the film – falls flat.
Yes, Barbie is a movie about flat feet. Or rather, how the absence of arched feet can lead to a grand adventure. So, here’s the deal, after Barbie starts having problems with how she's walking, she’s sent to visit “Weird Barbie,” another Barbie character who’s a bit out there played by Kate McKinnon. Weird Barbie gives Robbie’s character a choice: Throw on a heel and conform or embrace the flat feet and try out a pair of freaking Birkenstocks for once.
While we’ve seen in the trailer that ultimately the pink Barbie car, along with Gosling and Robbie’s characters, end up out in the real world, it’s actually not that easy of a choice for our heroine. It’s played for humor, but she’d rather throw on the heels and pretend to be happy; it’s the most commentary-about-women-in-society-played-up-for-humor moment I’ve seen in movie footage all year.
Margot Robbie’s Feet Really Are Actually Perfect In Context Of This Story
Of course, the fact the Australian actress was the one championing this role and the person who ultimately worked to get this movie made is perfectly fitting given she’s an actress fans have been talking about in terms of her feet for years. She’s weirdly good with her tootsies, and even learned to rollerblade for I, Tonya, which in turn, seems as if it was helpful a second time, as Barbie also features the characters skating at the iconic Venice Beach in Los Angeles.
She also figured out how to pick a lock with her feet for The Suicide Squad and rocked some dirty bare feet in a movie theater for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. It got to the point where Brad Pitt even joked about the Tarantino feet moment at the SAG Awards.
All of these viral feet moments have led people on the Internet to notice and fully obsess over Margot Robbie’s feet, for better or for worse. The fact this is the moment people are latching onto has been a bit of a surprise, but kind of a funny/fun internet one. Regardless, it’s so much better now we know feet are a main component of the storyline in the upcoming film. We won’t have too much longer to wait to find out exactly what that entails as Barbie officially hits theaters on July 21st, 2023.
