LuckyChap Entertainment was founded in 2014 out of Margot Robbie and Tom Ackerley's London flat. Exactly 10 years later, the producing partners and husband and wife duo have received their first Best Picture nominations for Barbie.
"I think we were hoping that it would lead to something like Barbie. We just didn't know it would happen as quickly," Robbie reflects. "10 years sounds like a long time, but it does feel like things have progressed quite quickly with the company."
The Queensland-born actress has two previous Oscar nods for I, Tonya (Best Actress in a Leading Role) and Bombshell (Best Actress in a Supporting Role). Barbie received eight total nominations at the 96th Oscars; Robbie and Ackerley share the Best Picture nomination with David Heyman and Robbie Brenner.
The couple's co-founder and best friend, Josey McNamara, was the nominated producer on LuckyChap's first Best Picture nominee, 2020's Promising Young Woman. The production company is also behind Emerald Fennell's follow-up, the much-buzzed about Saltburn.
"Between Barbie and Saltburn — which had such a moment and has done all the things that we could ever dream for it to do — this year feels particularly special," Robbie says. "It's definitely the year that we've really, really hit our stride and are really doing all the things that we set out to do."
Below, Robbie shares with A.frame the five films that most inspire her as a producer. "We get really excited by things that feel like they can hit the zeitgeist, that they are big worlds created by visionary filmmakers who have something to say, where there's a political edge and a lot of poppiness," she says.
"Of course, we obviously get excited by movies that have incredible female characters at the center," Robbie adds, "particularly played by unexpected people."
Directed by: Bob Fosse | Written by: Jay Presson Allen
Cabaret definitely fits all the things that we set out to do. It's poppy, it's Liza Minnelli, there's music and all that stuff, but there's also really deep-rooted themes and the political conversation that's happening. And it felt very zeitgeisty. You go back and watch it, and that's a transgressive film. Even for the '70s, it still feels like they really went for something and they stuck the landing! So, Cabaret for sure.
Directed by: Stanley Kubrick | Written by: Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern and Peter George
Our dream is to make culture-shifting, big cinema. And I feel like Kubrick did that again and again and again in so many unexpected ways. So, we could probably list every Kubrick film, but I particularly love Dr. Strangelove, because it's just my personal favorite. It's absolutely hilarious, but again, it's taking subject matter, like the Cold War and nuclear holocaust, and making it funny. It feels like something that everyone would've been like, 'No, don't do it. Don't touch it. It's too soon.' I mean, it was too soon back then!
I feel like something like that also fits the mold of the kind of film that we'd get excited and want to make. And it's just so iconic. Actually, our boardroom in Barbie was based on the War Room from Dr. Strangelove.
Written and Directed by: John Waters
Cry-Baby is also a personal favorite of mine. It's left of center, breaking the mold, totally camp, and you're like, 'What? You've got Ricki Lake and Johnny Depp? What is this?!' I was obsessed with that movie as a kid, and it's always stuck with me. John Waters is an incredibly transgressive filmmaker.
I've got a crew jacket from Cry-Baby. I would always talk about it. And my dialect coach, she was like, 'You know that was my first job. John Waters gave me a jacket on that job. I'll give it to you.' So, that is my favorite jacket, and I still wear it all the time.
Directed by: Hal Ashby | Written by: Colin Higgins
Harold and Maude is another absolute favorite. Maude is probably my favorite female character to ever grace the screen. Hal Ashby is, of course, genius, and just everything about that movie: It sets a world, sets a tone, sets a vibe, sets a feeling. It's a really emotive experience. And it's weird, and quirky, and beautiful, and has some of the best lines ever.
Written and Directed by: Quentin Tarantino
I'm a huge Tarantino fan. Obviously, it's a sick female character, It's totally breaking the mold of this action-genre revenge story. It's poppy. The ultraviolence is so stylized. It's just a world, a tone, a vision, so beautifully executed. I love that.
If I had to narrow down five, I would say those five. But I mean, we could go on forever. Paper Moon, Playtime, The Deer Hunter, Edward Scissorhands. We really respond to movies that break the mold in a way that services the story, as opposed to breaking the mold just to try and be different. I think the biggest compliment we can ever pay a filmmaker is that these are movies we wish we made.
