'Barbie' star Margot Robbie reveals she didn't own the doll, talks Ryan Gosling on Vogue cover

Margot Robbie is Barbie. But the actress who plays the iconic American doll in Greta Gerwig's upcoming live action "Barbie" movie doesn't remember owning one of the toys as a child herself.

Robbie, 32, revealed that she never owned one of the plastic female figures that has populated so many households since its 1959 release when she was growing up in Australia. "I don't think I did," she told Vogue for its summer issue cover story published Wednesday. "I know my cousin had a bunch of Barbies, and I'd go to her house."

Robbie, who is known for her roles in "Wolf of Wall Street," "Babylon" and Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood," will step into the plastic heels as the titular doll while Ryan Gosling will play Ken, Barbie's toned other half. The rest of the cast – other Barbies and side characters based on real dolls from toy company Mattel – is comprised of a who's who of Hollywood starlets, including Issa Rae and America Ferrera.

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Robbie's role in the film has drummed up plenty of chatter on social media ahead of its scheduled July 21 release that she hadn't dreamt about.

"It wasn't that I ever wanted to play Barbie, or dreamt of being Barbie, or anything like that," she said. "This is going to sound stupid, but I really didn’t even think about playing Barbie until years into developing the project," which she has been attached to since 2019 and is producing with her production company, LuckyChap.

She also delved into her evolution as Barbie the character, including an attempt at "animal work," an acting method she's used in the past to tap into her characters (including a pit bull and a mustang as Tonya Harding in "I, Tonya"). Unfortunately, a flamingo proved to be relatively unhelpful in her process, but a podcast Gerwig recommended was useful.

“I was like, 'Greta, I need to go on this whole character journey.' And Greta was like, 'Oh, I have a really good podcast for you,'" Robbie said, pointing to an episode of "This American Life" featuring a non-introspective woman. "You know how you have a voice in your head all the time?" Robbie said. "This woman, she doesn’t have that voice in her head."

Robbie also helped Gosling find his inner Ken, providing gifts to assist in character development.

"She left a pink present with a pink bow, from Barbie to Ken, every day while we were filming," Gosling told Vogue. "They were all beach-related. Like puka shells, or a sign that says 'Pray for surf.' Because Ken's job is just beach. I’ve never quite figured out what that means. But I felt like she was trying to help Ken understand, through these gifts that she was giving."

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Contributing: Anna Kaufman

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Margot Robbie talks 'Barbie,' dolls, Ryan Gosling on Vogue cover