How Margot Robbie Made Girlboss Cinema a Brand

Margot Robbie is the face of “Wuthering Heights”, the new adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic 1847 novel that is directed by Emerald Fennell, who previously directed “Promising Young Woman” and “Saltburn.” Ms Robbie plays Catherine Earnshaw with fellow Australian Jacob Elordi as Heathcliffe, Catherine’s love interest, for a gothic romance that famously played out on England’s Yorkshire moors. The novel has been adapted more than 30 times into various films and television productions, going back more than a century, and Fennell’s take is edgy, lurid, and dark, with lurid bondage and sadomasochistic themes, a supporting character played by Alison Oliver wearing a dog leash, and a modern soundtrack by Charli XCX. Leading up to the release, the actors’ chemistry has been a big focal point in the marketing, implying a seductive edge and hedonistic pleasure. Ms Robbie is not just the main star of Ms Fennell’s adaptation. She also serves as a producer at LuckyChap Entertainment, a production company she founded in 2016 with her husband, Tom Ackerley. Despite its name, Ms. Robbie’s company aims, she has said, to create films that focus on the modern woman from the perspective of female directors. This makes a lot of sense– women are underrepresented among movie theater-goers, and Hollywood has been under pressure to elevate more female filmmakers. While Luckychap Entertainment is not the only movie production company whose mission is to center on female representation, it has already produced numerous critical and commercial hits with that mission in mind. One of its earliest efforts was “I, Tonya,” the biopic about the disgraced Olympic figure skater, Tonya Harding, which earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for Ms Robbie. Luckychap has produced all of Ms Fennell’s filmography, from the rape-revenge thriller “Promising Young Woman” to the British class satire “Saltburn.” The former was nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and Ms Fennell won Best Original Screenplay. Its biggest success is “Barbie” – starring Ms Robbie in the title role and directed by Greta Gerwig – grossing over a billion dollars worldwide, the first female-directed film to do so. Ms. Robbie’s films have also mined themes meant to generate conversation – from Barbie’s approach towards gender to how “I, Tonya” took on the pressure of Olympic sport. By sparking conversation, the company provides its film with social currency. Ms Fennell’s unorthodox approach to “Wuthering Heights,” – shocking viewers who’ve come to expect something very different from a Bronte adaptation – will certainly get the conversation going. What many Luckychap films have in common is a “girlboss” as their main character. The term girlboss – which can have a positive or negative connotation, depending on the user – refers to confident women who embrace the aspirational perception of leadership, especially when in a male-dominated space. Some controversial examples of girlbosses could include Sheryl Sandberg, formerly of Facebook, who offered women a “Lean In” formula for success; and the former First Lady Michelle Obama. This archetype exists in the hopes of equalizing the playing field, especially in male-dominated areas like STEM and finance. But the term is increasingly being hurled as an insult – on social media and in influential television programs like “Succession” – indicating pushback at the Sheryl Sandberg form of girlbossdom (Ms. Sandberg was recently savaged as a coldhearted fraud by a former employee in a bestselling memoir). Perhaps that’s why for Ms. Robbie, the idea of the girlboss has taken on a new meaning in her films, which often portray complicated heroines and antiheroines against the heavy weight of patriarchal expectations. Some of these heroines are otherwise ordinary women who unleash their emotional power against the men who abuse them. One memorable moment in “Barbie” is a monologue delivered by America Ferrera – who plays a mom who once grew up with the dolls – about women being under pressure from unreasonable expectations. “Barbie’s” oblique approach to modern gender politics – which, depending on your worldview, is either too much or too little – shows how that political minefield has always followed the doll since its conception as a figurehead of modern femininity. Most of Ms. Robbie’s and Ms. Fennel’s films drive forward a progressive ideology, and this can be a double-edged sword. “Promising Young Women” wants to lecture the audience on rape culture, but it ends up implicating some women for directly contributing to it. For anyone who wants to escape to the movies, they may want to choose different films. Luckychap’s upcoming projects seek to continue this trend of exploring feminine complexities. It has already acquired the rights to adapting Ottessa Mossbagh’s “My Year Of Rest and Relaxation,” a novel about a distressed young woman, who yearns for sleep, as well as rights for the best-selling memoir “I’m Glad My Mom Died” by former child star Jeanette McCurdy for Apple TV, with Jennifer Aniston set to become the star and executive producer. “Wuthering Heights” is projected to be a box office success, and for Ms Robbie to continue her dominance in Hollywood, the message of embracing a flawed femininity might well be the hill she would like to die on.

How Margot Robbie Made Girlboss Cinema a Brand

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