Margot Robbie Says ‘Make Movies for the People Buying Tickets’: I Never Think ‘What Are the Critics Going to Think of This?’

Margot Robbie recently joined “Wuthering Heights” co-star Jacob Elordi for a GQ Australia video interview moderated by fellow Aussie actor Joel Edgerton. When asked how much she considers the moviegoing audience when working on a new movie, Robbie responded that’s all she’s ever thinking about. One group the Oscar nominee is not worried about is film critics.

“I consider audience always. I’ve never, ever been on set and thought, ‘What are the critics going to think of this?'” Robbie told Egerton. “I’m like, ‘What’s an audience going to feel right now? What’s their emotional response going to be?’ I believe you should make movies for the people who are going to buy tickets to see the movies. It’s as simple as that.”

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“I love working with Emerald [Fennell] because she always prioritizes an emotional experience over a heady idea,” Robbie continued. “She’s very smart. She’s got great ideas, but she’ll let a cool idea fall by the wayside to offer the option that’s going to be most exciting for the audience. I really appreciate that about her.”

Fennell directed Robbie and Elordi as Cathy and Heathcliff in “Wuthering Heights,” which opened in the top spot at the domestic box office amid polarizing responses from audiences. Fennell’s previous movies, “Promising Young Woman” and “Saltburn,” similarly divided viewers. Robbie has produced all three of Fennell’s feature directorial efforts.

Hate it or love it, audiences can’t stop talking about “Wuthering Heights.” That’s exactly what Robbie wants when she’s making a movie. Last year, fellow A-lister Jennifer Lawrence spoke honestly about the anxiety she gets right before her movies are about to be received by the public.

“The experience only adds to the dread, because I’ve had so many experiences of working so hard on something, loving something so deeply, and then releasing it to the world, and the world just being like, ‘Boo! Hate you!’ It is so awful,” Lawrence told V magazine. “And [yet] somehow, I read a script, I meet with the director, we get on set, we start doing it, and somehow I’m able to forget that this part of the process will happen. I mean, I’m very blessed and very lucky. But it’s a very scary few months.”

“My husband was so confused because he doesn’t have as much experience with this stuff,” she continued. “So I was telling him about my anxiety, and he was like, ‘But the movie’s incredible.’ And I was like, ‘I know, but that doesn’t matter. People might not get it.’ And he was like, ‘But they’re wrong.’ Like, as if that was supposed to make me feel better.”

Watch Robbie and Elordi’s full GQ Australia conversation in the video below.