Margot Robbie still doesn't understand Babylon's failure

The actress, who loved filming with Damien Chazelle, hopes that the film will be rehabilitated in the future.

Babylon was a real success in France, where 1.5 million spectators came to see the 3-hour fresco of Damien Chazelle on the transition from silent to talkies in a Hollywood of the 1920s in full turmoil (and decadence). In the United States, on the other hand, it was a monumental flop with only 65 million in revenue for a budget of 80 million.

Two years later, Margot Robbieone of the stars of the film with Brad Pitt and Diego Calva, returned to this bitter failure in the latest episode of the Talking Pictures podcast, run by journalist Ben Mankiewicz, who is none other than the grandson of Herman J. Mankiewicz (the screenwriter of Citizen Kane played by Gary Oldman in Mank by David Fincher) and the great-nephew of the famous director Joseph L. Mankiewicz (Eve, The Barefoot Countess, The Hound…).

And the actress, who has since enjoyed phenomenal success with barbiestill can't explain this oven.

“I still can't understand why people hated it. I wonder if in 20 years they will say to themselves: 'wait, Babylon didn't work back then? It's crazy.' Like when we realize that The Escapees was a failure upon release. How is this possible?“

Margot Robbie is all the more regretful as she holds the director and screenwriter of BabylonDamien Chazelle, whose passion and professionalism she praises.

“Damien is so conscientious, one of the reasons why I enjoyed working with him so much is that he always wants us to be at our best. If I had been a car he would have wanted me to be constantly on the floor. He always wanted more. Even when it was just the preparation.“

In BabylonMargot Robbie plays Nellie LaRoy, a silent film star who transitions with difficulty to talking films. Her character is inspired by several actresses, but mainly by Clara Bow (photo below), who notably played in The Wings (1927), the first feature film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Hollywood's first sex symbol Roaring Twenties (a period called the Roaring Twenties in France), Clara Bow is also known for her dissolute life and her legendary escapades, notably recounted in the book Hollywood Babylon who inspired the Babylon by Damien Chazelle.

Robbie, who had to struggle with her Australian accent at the start of her career, tells an anecdote on this subject testifying to the work she put in with Chazelle to refine Nellie:

“I loved working with Damien so much. When we were trying to find my character's accent, I presented him with 51 different versions. It was like doing a One Woman Show. At one point he told me he made Nelly like it was a mix between Snooki from Jersey Shore and Joe Pesci (laughs)”

“Joe Pesci I couldn't do it so I suggested a mix between Fran Dresher and Snooki (laughs). To tell you how much detail we went into. I ended up counting the versions that I had saved in my phone, and there were 51. There I said to Damien: “that's enough, choose one from there“. And he chose the New Jersey version.”

This New Jersey origin is also at the heart of a key scene in the film, where Nellie causes a scandal during a party after having suffered the class contempt of guests from good society.