Margot Robbie’s Barbie movie was a massive hit upon release, and the film has continued to have significant repercussions for viewers, for the movie industry as a whole, and for, somewhat strangely, interior design. The Greta Gerwig-helmed movie is actually a significant part of the offices of Margot Robbie’s production company And, no, they didn’t paint everything pink.
Margot Robbie appears in a new video for Architectural Digest in which she shows off the offices for LuckyChap Entertainment, her production company. Among the interesting details of the office, which I wish I could work in every day, is the fact that a few of the chairs, used by assistants in one hallway, actually came from the set of Barbie. Robbie said…
The chairs are actually in the Barbie movie, when you’re in the Mattel CEO office and all the Mattel guys are sitting around on pink chairs, these are the chairs, we just had them reupholstered.
Will Ferrell played the Mattel CEO in Barbie, with his character and the fictionalized version of the corporation being one of the more unusual elements of the film. The movie, which was also produced by Mattel, was willing to take some playful jabs at the toy company. Not every shot at the brand was entirely well-received by the head honchos but, in the end, it all worked out.
You certainly wouldn’t recognize the chairs as being in the Barbie movie. Following the reupholstery, they don’t exactly look familiar, and the seats are never really given a lot of focus in the film anyway. As for why the chairs were reused, it wasn’t because Robbie was necessarily looking to include a piece of the hit movie in the production company offices. It was all much more pragmatic; the chairs were just really expensive, and she didn’t want to waste them. The actress continued…
‘Cause at the end of the movie, I mean, they were quite expensive actually, and I was like ‘Wait, what’s going to happen to these chairs?’
Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap Entertainment was the production company behind Barbie so, at the end of the day, the money to buy those chairs came from her company in the first place. Rather than just throw them away or give them away, as happens to pieces of movie sets most of the time. So it’s understandable that the actress/producer figured she’d take the chairs she paid for and get her money’s worth out of them.
Essentially, Margot Robbie was just a business owner trying to save money, and I love everything about all of this. She could have made a point to promote the fact that the chairs were from Barbie and make a big deal out of all of them, but they’re not even being used in the conference room or in the waiting room, where more people would see them and appreciate them.
The props-turned-office items are being used as by assistants and are part of the real work being done. I don’t know about you, but I’d find it very cool to be in a position to plant myself in one of the seats featured in one of the most successful movies of all time. Here’s hoping that those who do sit in those chairs from Barbie and learn of their history appreciate that.