How Margot Robbie was made ‘self-conscious’ by ‘Barbie’ set visitors

Margot Robbie felt more self-conscious shooting Barbie than Ryan Gosling may have felt.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, director Greta Gertwig revealed that some Barbie set visitors made Margot Robbie feel “self-conscious” during filming the viral rollerblading scene.

The scene was being shot at Venice Beach and photos from the scene, featuring Robbie and Gosling in neon outfits, exploded on social media last summer during production.

“How Barbie operates in Barbieland is she’s entirely continuous with her environment,” Gerwig said.

“Even the houses have no walls, because you never need to hide because there’s nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed of. And suddenly finding yourself in the real world and wishing you could hide, that’s the essence of being human. But when we were actually shooting on Venice Beach, with Margot and Ryan in neon rollerblading outfits, it was fascinating because it was actually happening in front of us.”

She continued, “People would go by Ryan, high-five him, and say, ‘Awesome, Ryan, you look great!’ And they wouldn’t actually say anything to Margot. They’d just look at her. It was just surreal.

“In that moment, she did feel self-conscious. And as the director, I wanted to protect her. But I also knew that the scene we were shooting had to be the scene where she felt exposed. And she was exposed, both as a celebrity and as a lady.”

Gerwig added, “To be fair, Ryan was like, ‘I wish I wasn’t wearing this vest.’ But it was a different kind of discomfort.”

Talking about the viral moment at the time on Fallon Tonight, Robbie called it “the most humiliating moment of my life.”

“I can’t tell you how mortified we were, by the way,” Robbie said. “We look like we’re like laughing and having fun, but we’re dying on the inside. Dying. I was like, this is the most humiliating moment of my life.”

Robbie responded, “No! I mean, I knew that we had some exteriors to shoot in L.A. I knew once you were doing exteriors, you’re gonna get papped. There’s probably going to be a little crowd of people who are going to take notice because, you know, we stand out a little bit in those outfits.”