The news of Margot’s front-running role was leaked when Wikileaks published more than 170,000 emails, claimed to have been pulled from the company’s servers. “As far as who would play Barbie probably an ingenue. I like Margot Robbie, for instance. Or possibly a discovery,” Doug Belgrad, president of Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, wrote back in March 2014. Producer Laurie MacDonald (Gladiator and Men In Black) also backed Margot for the job to former Sony boss Amy Pascal. “She is Barbie come to life- she’d be great,” she said.
Much to everyone’s surprise, the Australian actress was apparently keen for the role too despite her success landing roles in blockbusters like The Wolf of Wall Street and Focus. “Bugliari and JP pitched Margot the idea for Barbie and she loved it! She’s free in October once she wraps Tarzan,” wrote Hannah Minghella, co-president of production at Columbia Pictures. Either Hannah was lying about Margot’s excitement for the role, or the 24-year-old is darn good at keeping a secret. Better at keeping secrets than Sony, anyway.
While the workplace was more than happy to offer praise to Margot, they weren’t as kind to her potential sidekick for the movie. Kristen Wiig, Tina Fey, Amy Adams and Sandra Bullock were possible contenders for the role. “I like Amy Adams more than Wiig – more marketing bang there. Wiig is funny but can seem a bit sad/pathetic while Amy is entirely endearing,” wrote Dwight Caines, another Sony exec.
“Are we sure Sandy isn’t too old?” MacDonald’s husband and fellow producer, Walter Parkes, added to the conversation, suggesting the likes of Rose Byrne for an all-Aussie duo. Now that’s a movie we’d see. Let’s get back to Margot, though.
We saw that girl wearing nothing but her natural pride in The Wolf of Wall Street, and we don’t think any of that rig was plastic fantastic. Fantastic, yes. Plastic, probably not.
[Via Wikileaks]
