Margot Robbie & Brad Pitt: The One Character That Margot Robbie Would Love To Play Again

Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, welcome to The Project. It's so good to see you both. Hi. Nice to see you, thanks. Brad, I think the last time we spoke it was for Bullet Train, and I remember saying to you at the time that that was the most bonkers film I had ever seen. Was this film your attempt to outdo that? Yes, yes, because this is probably the most bonkers movie you've ever seen, certainly in the first 30 minutes alone. Yes, I mean, it was like a visual assault. What was it like to act that? Margot calls it a visual feast. Yes. I'm gonna go with feast. Yes, yes. Of course, I apologize. It's a visual feast, but it is an assault on your senses. It's, there's so much happening on screen, but what you're also gonna be experiencing is the most incredible sound design, and the music is so stunning. The effect all together is what leaves you breathless. You thought this town needed you. It's bigger than you. You know what we have to do? We have to redefine the form. Who wants to see me fight a- I just find it impossible to imagine that you would know what to expect from the film from acting in those scenes that are just so wild and over the top. When you got to watch it finally, were you as blown away as everyone else would be? Yes. Usually you read these elements like in a script, and like they'll describe the scene, and usually those things get- They have to pull back. Hammered, pulled back, yeah, PC, little PC. This one went further, I need to say. When they say orgy, well, they meant orgy. Yes, and that was an orgy that seemed to go for a very, very long time. This film, though, is kind of like a love letter to Hollywood, or that golden era of the 20s and 30s filmmaking. And Margot, you do this amazing scene where you're filming a film, and you just have to do take after take because sound is part of it, and that's a new thing. Before you guys did this film, had you ever thought about just how hard filmmaking was for those people and everything they had to go through? I guess I had a little bit that what I had never considered before was how they were just making up the format itself for the first time. Like, I had always taken for granted that a feature film is a certain length, around 120 minutes, and it's a three-act structure. But back then, they must have been like, well, I don't know, I seem like 45 minutes seems good for this story, or like this story got done in 20 minutes, or this one got done in three hours. I mean, and they were just, there weren't any rules. And that was just so wild, and I'd never appreciated that before. Yeah, by all reports, it was the wild, wild west. And Damien, I think he talks about this film as a hate letter to Hollywood, but a love letter to filmmaking. And it's true, because this was such a seismic turn going from the silence to the talkies. And I agree with you, the scenes where Margot's on set, first doing the silent film, and then doing the, when sound comes in, it's my favorite. What a scene. They're off the charts, good. But it was just wide open, and in the silent era, didn't have to worry about sound, they could shoot outside, traffic could go by, camels can go by. It's all the sets next to each other. Yeah, and then sound comes in, and you have the one mic, and you have to stand right there, because if you go over here, they can't pick it up, you gotta redo it. So they were really caged and shackled in the very beginning. And it was a huge shift for everyone, for the crew and for the actors. That was just a totally different way of making a movie so suddenly that people just couldn't, some people couldn't adapt. Both Margot and Brad's performances in Babylon have earned them a Golden Globe nomination each, proving their scenes together are a recipe for success. You guys have been in a few films now together. Yes, three. But never once done a scene together, is that right? That is correct. That is correct, we've done three films together. We've been in one, this is the first one we've been in a scene together. I did notice one of those scenes, though, involves, where can I put this, your character, Margot, kissing your character, Brad. And I did wonder, was that in the script? No, I had asked for it, if we could write that in, because I didn't know when I was ever gonna get a chance to do this again, so let me do this. I might just add, too, Nellie kisses probably 15 people in this movie. Yeah, yeah. And she's probably carrying a few STDs. She's probably, Nellie's riddled. Poor Nellie. She's actually one of my all-time favorites. She's my all-time favorite, for sure, forever. Oh, really? She's your all-time favorite, because I note that you've said in the past, Margot, that if you could go back and revisit any character, it would be Sharon Tate from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Is she off the perch now? Well, being Sharon is like being on holiday. Like, being that version of Sharon that Quentin created for that movie is like floating in a little golden bubble. So going anywhere for a day, you wanna go to a golden bubble. But Nellie is, I'd say, the role of my career and the role of my lifetime, yeah. Wow, that's a big statement, Brad. What about you? Are there any characters or roles you would like to replay? To replay? No, I like moving on, really. No, I mean, your character in True Romance. Be him again. Oh, that's what she's named. Floyd. Floyd, yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna return to Floyd. I really like that you're just doing requests with this. You don't have any desires in this of your own. It's just whatever Margot tells you to do. It's true. Well, this has been a blast. Babylon is such a feast, to use the correct terminology. Thank you very much for speaking to us. And I hope you've recovered from filming it. I'm lost. I think you might need a sleep after all that, especially you, Margot. Especially Margot. Yeah. True. Good stuff. That's Babylon. It's time for Timber's Interviews next year, January 19. Put it in your diary. Yeah, thanks.