Both movies were released on July 21.
Margot Robbie was determined to stand her ground against an Oppenheimer producer. During the latest edition of Variety's "Actors on Actors" series, the Barbie producer and star told Oppenheimer actor Cillian Murphy what one of his film's producers requested of her.
"One of your producers, Chuck Roven, called me because we worked together on some other projects. And he was like, 'I think you guys should move your date,'" Robbie claimed. "And I was like, 'We're not moving our date. If you're scared to be up against us, then you move your date.' And he's like, 'We're not moving our date. I just think it'd be better for you to move.' And I was like, 'We're not moving!'"
From Robbie's point of view, her comedic film and Murphy's thriller made "a really great pairing" when they were both released on July 21.
"It's a perfect double billing, Oppenheimer and Barbie," she said. "Clearly the world agreed. Thank God. The fact that people were going and being like, 'Oh, watch Oppenheimer first, then Barbie.' I was like, 'See? People like everything.' People are weird."
Murphy agreed, telling Robbie, "That was a good instinct. And they don't like being told what to do. They will decide, and they will generate the interest themselves."
Another level of the whole thing, Robbie believes, "were also really excited by the filmmakers."
"People were itching for the next Chris Nolan film and itching for the next Greta Gerwig film," she said of the directors of Oppenheimer and Barbie respectively. "To get them at the same time was exciting."
When ET spoke to Robbie last month, she reacted to Barbie's ongoing Oscar buzz.
"If Barbie goes to the Oscars, that would be quite historic in my mind," she said. "That would be incredible."
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