Margot Robbie has been discussing nudity in period films on (unsurprisingly) an Australian podcast. They talk about the opening scene of the 1920s-set Babylon, which features a debauched party featuring an awful lot of nudity.
Robbie and her co-star Diego Calva say that you quickly get used to it, and become desensitized to all of the nudity after filming for days on end. The hosts – the delightfully named Fitzy and Wippa – asked about a particular challenge of finding people who look authentic in a period film, even when nude; “I’ve heard that a lot of the time, it’s actually quite hard to find women with real breasts (not enhanced by surgery) and pubic hair…”
Robbie responds; “They have things called merkins, which is a wig but for genitalia. I remember on Wolf of Wall Street, there was an entire merkin room…a room full of merkins. I guess people would go and pick out (the one they wanted). I’m not going to go into detail, but it was fascinating and a little-known fact about the filmmaking industry. Yes…merkins.”
Robbie has many more fascinating times ahead of her, with the release of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City. Robbie has also been attached to a possible new film in the Ocean’s franchise, as well as a potential new Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
Babylon has a huge ensemble cast, and also stars Brad Pitt, Jean Smart, Flea, Olivia Wilde, Lukas Haas, Patrick Fugit, Eric Roberts, Max Minghella, Samara Weaving, Katherine Waterston, Ethan Suplee, Tobey Maguire, and Spike Jonze. Justin Hurwitz, who composed the scores for all of Damien Chazelle’s other movies including La La Land, is a front-runner to win Best Score at the Oscars for Babylon.
Check out our guide to the best drama movies.