Margot Robbie Explained How Emma Mackey Was Cast In "Barbie" After People Constantly Said How Similar They Look IRL

It's no secret that Barbie is one of the most highly anticipated movies of 2023. And we're only a few short weeks away from when it finally hits theaters.

Directed by Greta Gerwig and written by Greta and Noah Baumbach, Barbie is set to follow Barbie (Margot Robbie) as she lives in Barbie Land with Ken (Ryan Gosling) and other Barbies and Kens. However, one day Barbie decides to take a trip to the real world.

And while everything about Barbie has made the internet go wild, one of the original most exciting things was when the cast of the movie was introduced.

Margot and Ryan are joined by an all-star cast of actors who not only play people in the real world — like America Ferrera and Will Ferrell — but also play the other Kens and Barbies in Barbie Land.

Issa Rae plays President Barbie, Simu Liu appears as a Ken, Kate McKinnon stars as Weird Barbie, Hari Nef is Dr. Barbie, Dua Lipa appears as the Mermaid Barbies, and many more.

However, one casting choice in particular made everyone excited, and that was Emma Mackey.

Ever since Sex Education debuted on Netflix in 2019, people cannot help comparing Emma and Margot and discussing how similar the duo look.

Even Emma made jokes about it while promoting the show because, I'm sure, she could not go anywhere without people mentioning how much she looks like Margot.

So when Emma was cast in Barbie, fans were excited that Margot and Emma would finally share the screen together, and it turns out we have their looking so much alike to thank for this casting.

During our recent puppy interview with Margot and Ryan, Margot talked about what it was like working with Emma, and she explained that she was cast because Margot also constantly gets compared to the young star.

"I've been getting told for years that I look like the girl from Sex Education, who is Emma Mackey," Margot began.

Margot continued, saying, "She plays one of the Barbies in the movie pretty much because Greta and I thought it would be funny. We were gonna do this whole joke about us looking similar."

But the joke ended up not making it into the movie because once they were dressed in their respective Barbie outfits, they didn't look as similar as they originally thought.

"Once we got all dressed up as our Barbies, we were kind of like, 'We don't actually look that similar,'" Margot recalled. "Like, when she's got her brown hair and I've got my blonde hair, we don't look THAT similar, so we didn't put that joke in the movie."

And Ryan actually had no idea this was one of the reasons Emma was cast in Barbie.

While the twin joke didn't make it into Barbie, Margot says that she does have fun with people when they come up to her and praise her work in Sex Education, not knowing that she's not Emma.

She added, "When people come up and say, 'I loved you in Sex Education,' I just say, 'Thank you. Thank you so much.'"

Also, alongside Emma, Ncuti Gatwa and Connor Swindells appear in Barbie as a Ken and a Mattel intern respectively, so I just have to assume that Greta and Margot are big Sex Education fans in general.

As a huge Sex Education AND Margot Robbie fan, I absolutely love that Margot, Greta, and Emma were thinking about this while making Barbie. And I can't wait to see Emma's role in the movie.

You can watch Margot and Ryan's full puppy interview below:

Barbie hits theaters everywhere July 21!