taking into account Barbie Coming out last summer, one might have guessed that the film would be an easy sell to a Hollywood studio. Incorrect.
“Movies are a crazy business, you’re selling something intangible, it’s an idea,” says Australian actress Margot Robbie, who plays Barbie in the beloved film that grossed $1.4 billion at the box office. Doll, she told us. era. “You don’t know how much money it’s going to make, who’s going to see it, whether they’re going to see it, or how it’s going to be received.”
A more certain thing for Robbie is the recent launch of her gin brand Papa Salt, which was inspired by her many nights clubbing in London’s Clapham neighborhood.
“It felt simpler, more predictable,” Robbie said of entering the alcohol industry. “You can put it on a spreadsheet, but you can’t put a movie idea on the map.”
In other words, selling products was more concrete than selling ideas, and she had a group of friends—Charlie Maas and Regan Riskas and her husband, Tom Ackerley— —doing business with her.
The idea for the subtly flavored gin dates back to when Robbie packed her purse with vanilla tea bags during nights at Infernos, a nightclub she frequented with “thousands of other Australian Londoners”, she said tell us. era. Gin and tonics are her favorites, but that doesn’t mean they always taste good.
“If you put one in a bad G&T, it suddenly becomes delicious. I had them all over my handbag,” she recalls. “I’ll buy one round and hand it over directly [out the tea bags]”.
According to the company’s website, Robbie and her fellow Salt Daddy colleagues were on a mission to create a gin that “can be paired with any soda, tastes great with tonic water, and makes a delicious martini “. It took them 59 recipes to get there, but now they’re selling an “easy-drinking gin that celebrates the subtle flavors of native Australian botanicals” such as zestful wax flower, hibiscus flower and citrus peel. Nuts wattle seeds (an edible seed from Australia), pink peppercorns and oyster shells also add flavor.
While it’s easier to sell the idea of a gin brand than a movie, that doesn’t mean creating a delicious tipple is completely effortless. Robbie traveled to Australia to meet Brian Restall, the owner of a popular local distillery, and was “completely unhappy” when they discussed the idea of the brand together. But it didn’t take long for Restall to warm to the idea, according to one person. Forbes Australia article.
How much is Margot Robbie worth?
although Barbie There’s no doubt that Robbie was thrust back into the spotlight last summer, starring in several other hit movies and TV shows. She started out in Australian soap operas Neighbor, she appeared in more than 300 episodes. She played Jordan Belfort’s charming wife Naomi Lapaglia in the 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street, It grossed nearly $407 million at the box office. She also played Jane Ported in the film The Legend of Tarzan and Harley Quinn in "Harley Quinn" suicide squad Movie.
But she got huge recognition when she won an Academy Award for playing Tonya Harding in the biopic I, Tonyawhich led to her playing Queen Elizabeth I in Elizabeth I . mary queen of scots. However, she infamously did not win an Academy Award for her performance in the film. Barbie— and neither did producer Greta Gerwig, considered one of the biggest snubs in awards history. Barbie It’s the highest-grossing movie of 2023, and Robbie also earned the highest salary for a woman in Hollywood last year – $12.5 million.
Robbie is worth an estimated $60 million, which includes earnings from movies she stars in and from LuckyChap Entertainment, the production company she founded with her friends and husband.
“As an actor, there’s only so much you can do,” Robbie told Marie Claire Australia 2023. “As a producer, you can be part of the conversation about who is being hired, for what roles, and how much they are paid.”
