Helen Mirren says that Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie have nothing to worry about when it comes to their Oscar snubs.
Talking with 360Aproko Cassie DiLaura from the 37th Annual American Cinematheque Awards on Thursday, the 78-year-old actress said that she doesn’t think that the pair should be upset by their lack of nominations in their respective categories as their film still made history in so many other ways.
“You can’t get upset about things like that, honestly,” Mirren told 360Aproko. “What is fantastic is that Barbie was the highest-grossing film that Warner Brothers has ever had in their lives and do you remember who won best film of the year before last?”
As Academy Award nominations were revealed in January, the world was shocked to see not only Gerwig, but also the actress behind the titular character of Barbie, Robbie, left out of the Best Director and Best Lead Actress categories.
Mirren, a four-time nominee and one-time winner, said that while she was disheartened to see the lack of nominations for the two women behind the box-office smash and cultural phenomenon, she thinks history will be the greater judge of the project.
“I mean, of course I would have loved to have seen Greta [be nominated], and I think she should win best [director]. It’s so difficult, it’s not a running race, you know, you can’t — Christopher Nolan’s work on Oppenheimer was spectacular, extraordinary. But for me, Greta’s work was so out there, it was so brave, it was something we’d never seen before,” she said. “I just love the fact that the audience responded the way they did.”
That response includes more than $1.46 billion at the box office, an 88 percent critic rating and 83 percent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes and eight other Academy Award nominations, including in the Best Supporting Actress category for America Ferrera, Best Supporting Actor category for Ryan Gosling and Best Picture.
Following the nominations, both Gosling and Ferrera released statements thanking the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and also slamming the snubs of their director and leading actress — who also served as an executive producer.
In her own statement after the nominations came out, Robbie personally spoke out on the snub, saying she was too happy for the film’s eight nominations overall to be worried about one snub.
“There’s no way to feel sad when you know you’re this blessed,” Robbie told the crowd at a special SAG screening of the movie in January.
“Obviously I think Greta should be nominated as a director, because what she did is a once-in-a-career, once-in-a-lifetime thing, what she pulled off, it really is,” Robbie added. “But it’s been an incredible year for all the films.”
On Thursday, Mirren also addressed another recent story coming out of Barbieland, one in which she says a deleted scene features a “drunk” Olivia Colman fighting with Mirren in an attempt to take over Mirren’s job as narrator for the film.
“We did shoot that scene, yes we did,” Mirren said. “I’d love to see it sometime.”
