Barbie: The Funny Reason Why An Emma Mackey & Margot Robbie Scene Was Cut
Some celebrities just... really look alike. Isla Fisher once put Amy Adams' face on her own Christmas cards to see if anybody would notice. Bryce Dallas Howard and Jessica Chastain spend inordinate amounts of time, apparently, insisting that they're not the same person. If you've ever watched Netflix's original series "Sex Education," you know that star Emma Mackey, who plays Maeve, bears a striking resemblance to "Barbie" star and Academy Award nominee Margot Robbie. In fact, it was their resemblance that led to Mackey appearing in the "Barbie" movie, and an early version of the film even acknowledged their similar looks.
According to Robbie, though, this moment was cut from the final product. Speaking to Buzzfeed during one of their patented "puppy interviews" alongside her Ken, Ryan Gosling, Robbie said, "I've been getting told for years that I look like the girl from 'Sex Education,' Emma Mackey. And she plays one of the Barbies in the movie, pretty much because Greta [Gerwig, the film's writer-director] and I thought it would be funny."
Gerwig and Robbie even came up with a joke about the pair's similar appearances, but when all was said and done, it didn't land the way they thought it would. "We were going to do this whole joke about us looking similar ... and once we got all dressed up as our Barbies, we were kind of like, 'We don't actually look that similar.'"
Emma Mackey and Margot Robbie decided they don't look as much alike as they once thought
"Like, when she's got her brown hair, and I've got my blonde hair, we don't look that similar," Margot Robbie continued in her Buzzfeed interview, referring to Emma Mackey's natural hair color. "So we didn't put that joke in the movie. But when people come up to me and say, 'I loved you in Sex Education,' I just say thank you."
Mackey's character on "Sex Education," Maeve Wiley, changes up her hair color a lot throughout the show, and it's worth acknowledging that, as a blonde, she definitely resembles Robbie. Clearly, though, the joke didn't land on the "Barbie" set because of Mackey's natural hue, so it's probably for the best that they didn't bother forcing it. Nevertheless, Mackey is a key part of the final product as Physicist Barbie, one of the residents of Barbieland with whom Robbie's Stereotypical Barbie spends time throughout the film.
Margot Robbie met Emma Mackey for the first time on the set of Barbie
As it turns out, Margot Robbie first met Emma Mackey around the time they were both cast in "Barbie." That they only ended up deciding after the fact they didn't resemble one another enough to joke about it is therefore unsurprising when taking this into account.
Robbie briefly detailed what it was like working with Mackey during a filmed interview for SiriusXM's The Jess Cagle Show. While discussing of a prank of sorts Ryan Gosling played on the rest of the cast during filming of the girl's night scene near the movie's start, Robbie recounted feeling nostalgic about childhood sleepovers while brushing her teeth in a mirror alongside Mackey's Physicist Barbie. "Then we shared a bed, and I was like, 'we only met like two weeks ago,'" she said. "We bonded so quickly, and I think the sleepover helped."
According to Robbie's Buzzfeed interview, she and Greta Gerwig offered Mackey a part in "Barbie" at least in part based on her famous resemblance to Robbie. Even though that didn't end up informing their characters' relationship in the film, it seems the two got along well on set all the same, allowing Mackey to remain a part of its ensemble cast.