Margot Robbie Says Movies Should Be Made for Audiences, Not Critics - “Make Movies for the People Who Buy Tickets”
If you’re making a movie, who are you really making it for? According to Margot Robbie, the answer is simple. The audience. Not the critics. Not the awards chatter. Just the people buying tickets and sitting in the theater.
Robbie recently sat down with her Wuthering Heights co-star Jacob Elordi for a GQ Australia video interview moderated by fellow Aussie actor Joel Edgerton, and she didn’t hesitate when asked how much she considers the moviegoing crowd while working on a film.
“I consider audience always. I’ve never, ever been on set and thought, ‘What are the critics going to think of this?' I’m like, ‘What’s an audience going to feel right now? What’s their emotional response going to be?’ I believe you should make movies for the people who are going to buy tickets to see the movies. It’s as simple as that.”
That mindset tracks perfectly with the kind of projects she’s been championing lately. Robbie teamed up with director Emerald Fennell for Wuthering Heights, where she stars alongside Elordi as Cathy to his Heathcliff. The film debuted at the top of the domestic box office and instantly sparked heated conversations. Some viewers loved it. Others didn’t connect at all. Either way, it got people talking.
And that seems to be exactly the point.
Robbie has also produced all three of Fennell’s feature films, including Promising Young Woman and Saltburn, both of which split audiences right down the middle. But if you ask Robbie, that kind of reaction isn’t something to fear. It’s something to lean into.
“I love working with Emerald [Fennell] because she always prioritizes an emotional experience over a heady idea. She’s very smart. She’s got great ideas, but she’ll let a cool idea fall by the wayside to offer the option that’s going to be most exciting for the audience. I really appreciate that about her.”
It’s a revealing look at how Robbie approaches filmmaking. For her, it isn’t about crafting something critics will dissect. It’s about creating a visceral reaction in the theater. Are people laughing? Are they shocked? Are they devastated? If the audience feels something, she’s done her job.
That outlook stands in interesting contrast to what Jennifer Lawrence shared last year about the anxiety that hits before one of her movies premieres. Lawrence opened up about the emotional rollercoaster that comes with releasing a project into the wild.
“The experience only adds to the dread, because I’ve had so many experiences of working so hard on something, loving something so deeply, and then releasing it to the world, and the world just being like, ‘Boo! Hate you!’ It is so awful,” Lawrence told V magazine.
“And [yet] somehow, I read a script, I meet with the director, we get on set, we start doing it, and somehow I’m able to forget that this part of the process will happen. I mean, I’m very blessed and very lucky. But it’s a very scary few months.”
She added, “My husband was so confused because he doesn’t have as much experience with this stuff,” she continued. “So I was telling him about my anxiety, and he was like, ‘But the movie’s incredible.’ And I was like, ‘I know, but that doesn’t matter. People might not get it.’ And he was like, ‘But they’re wrong.’ Like, as if that was supposed to make me feel better.”
It’s an honest look at the vulnerability that comes with putting art out there. For Lawrence, the fear of rejection is very real. For Robbie, the focus seems to be locked on the theater experience itself, not the reviews that follow.
Whether you loved or hated Wuthering Heights, you can’t deny it made people react, and if you ask Robbie, that’s the whole game. Movies are meant to connect with the crowd in the seats. Everything else is just noise.