SHE'S GOLDEN!

Barbie, yes, but no bimbo –Margot Robbie has gone from girl-next-door Down Under to the toast of Tinseltown and there's just no stopping her

- NICI DE WET

SHE grew up on a farm in the Australian Outback, S e her hunting wild pigs and tearing around on a motorbike. Back then Tinseltown felt like a foreign world, a big shiny carrot dangling across oceans and continents. And it's a carrot Margot Robbie wanted so badly she went out and grabbed it with both hands.

In fact, she's practically gobbled up the whole thing. The 32-year-old star has just been named Hollywood's highest-earning female actor after being paid $12,5 million (R210 million) for bringing a plastic doll to life.

Margot tops Variety magazine's latest list of Hollywood top earners and the salary she's getting for playing Barbie in the upcoming Barbie Girl movie is the same as the one Ryan Gosling, who plays Ken, is taking home.

Equal pay is still a rarity in the movie business and her earnings have cemented her status as one of the darlings of her generation - a golden girl with box office clout and big-bucks potential.

There's been plenty of hype around Barbie Girl, which is set to hit theatres in July 2023. Pictures from the movie's Los Angeles set show her and Ryan in matching neon pink and yellow outfits rollerblading around, all smooth tanned skin and bouncy hair.

Fun the movie promises to be - but it's more than that, Margot says. "People generally hear Barbie and think, I know what that movie is going to be'. And then they hear Greta Gerwig is writing and directing it and they're like, 'Oh well, maybe I don't".

Greta earned critical acclaim for writing and directing the coming-of-age film Lady Bird in 2017 and the 2019 remake of Little Women, which both earned Oscar nominations for Best Picture.

She's bringing depth and a touch of the unexpected to Barbie Girl - and she has just the leading lady to help do it.