For “Barbie” star Margot Robbie, the Spice Girls were no feminist wannabes.
In fact, the two-time Oscar nominee attributes some of her own ideas about feminism — which she and director Greta Gerwig explore in the much-anticipated “Barbie” movie, out July 21 — to the 1990s British girl group.
“The Spice Girls changed everything and dictated my version of second-wave feminism,” Robbie, 33, told Rolling Stone.
“It’s like, ‘Oh my God, they wear little sparkly dresses and push-up bras and then have a girl gang? That’s what I want to be!’”
Growing up in the ’90s, the Aussie-born Robbie also had a pink passion for the Aqua bop “Barbie Girl.” At the urging of the “Babylon” actress, the 1997 hit was included on the “Barbie” soundtrack — reworked as a “Barbie World” duet featuring rappers Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice.
“I was like, ‘Greta, how are we going to incorporate this song? We can’t do a Barbie movie and not have a nod to Aqua’s ‘Barbie Girl.’ It has to be in there,’” Robbie told a reporter. “And [Greta] was like, ‘Don’t worry, we’re going to find a cool way to incorporate it.’
“And then,” Robbie continued, “when she was like, ‘Guess who’s going to do the remix of Aqua’s ‘Barbie Girl’? Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice.’ I was like, ‘Together? Are you joking?!’ I just knew immediately that all my girlfriends were going to lose their minds.”
Another source of childhood inspo for the film came from the 1960s in the form of the Beach Boys, who were “all [she] would listen to.”
“I had watched a documentary about how the Beach Boys would have been even more popular if the Beatles hadn’t come along and stolen the limelight,” she said of the classic California group, whose “Fun, Fun, Fun” was featured in a “Barbie” trailer.
For Robbie, music can help her into the groove for her roles.
“I can anchor my character and myself in either a time period or a certain feeling,” she said. “Music is so helpful for that.”