There’s so much to be excited about when it comes to the upcoming Barbie movie, and part of that is because it’s chock full of incredibly meaningful, funny and clever details. One of those details that has set the internet on fire is Barbie’s feet and their perfect arch, just like the dolls. Now, the actress has broken down that already iconic sequence, and of course, it went viral on TikTok.
Considering Barbie’s feet have become a major topic of conversation, Margot Robbie opened up about how they filmed those iconic frames from the full Barbie trailer of the titular character taking off her heels, revealing her arched feet. She explained the mechanics of the scene to Fandango, and the clip has gone viral on TikTok, amassing over 1.3 million views, check it out:
@fandango ♬ original sound - Fandango
I was really struck by everything that went into creating this picture-perfect sequence. Robbie explained in detail how she worked with Greta Gerwig and the crew to really make Barbie’s feet look like the doll’s, saying:
It was probably about eight takes. Wasn’t that many. They are my feet. I walked up, we had little sticky bits on the floor for the double-sided tape for the shoes, so they wouldn’t come off so that I could get my feet out of them and I was holding on to a bar, but that’s it. I wasn’t in a harness or anything like that. I just walked up, kind of held onto the bar above camera.
All of that makes so much sense! To make sure the sequence was seamless they put some double-sided tape on the floor for her heels and had a bar right off the camera for her to grab onto. Overall, while it’s simple, what they did is pretty genius, and only adds to the list of reasons why this scene is already so iconic.
Following this fascinating explanation, Margot Robbie also opened up about why she wanted her feet to be in Barbie saying:
I always try and do my own inserts, I don’t like when I watch a movie and I know it’s not my hands. I hate that so much. I always say to the director, ‘Please let me do all my own things.’ I don’t like knowing that I didn’t do it.
She does have a history of doing her own inserts, and whenever she does a scene that involves her feet, it tends to go viral, like her dirty feet in Once Upton a Time in Hollywood did. However, I don’t think it’s just Margot Robbie’s feet that are the reason this Barbie scene has taken the world by storm. I think just about any kid who grew up with Barbies remembers those arched feet, so seeing a real human stand like that on screen is pretty wild. It almost feels like a dream to see all these actresses playing characters that really are life-like Barbies.
Also, it turns out that the titular character’s feet play a big role in Barbie, so there’s a good reason behind all the work that went into nailing that iconic shot. As we learned in the trailer, Barbie's feet go flat and other parts of her magical life have also gone awry (like having cold water and falling off her roof), so I think this perfect shot likely plays into the bigger existential story being told here.
Luckily, we won’t have to wait much longer to finally discover the deeper meaning behind why Barbie’s feet are integral to the plot of her movie, because Barbie is slated on the 2023 movie schedule for a July 21 release. However, while we wait a couple more weeks for this highly anticipated film, we have lots of behind-the-scenes stories, like this one, that can help us better understand how this hot pink project was made and all the deeper meaning behind it.
