Anyone who watched the trailers forBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justiceknows whereMargot Robbieis coming from. The inclusion of both Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and Doomsday was notoriously revealed before the superhero flick ever hit cinemas. And the star ofBarbiedetests the way movie previews often ruin their respective films. While Robbie may be best known as an actress, the Hollywood player also produces projects along with her co-founders, Tom Ackerley and Josey McNamara, of the Los Angeles production company LuckyChap. And when it came to advertising and marketingSaltburn, Robbie revealed how she loathes giving away an entire film in a short movie trailer. Robbie said in an exclusive interview withVariety:
“There’s got to be an element of mystery. I hate trailers that have the whole movie condensed to two minutes. Everyone’s like, ‘It tested really high.’ Of course, it did; you gave someone the whole movie. Marketing an Emerald Fennell movie is tricky because she is the queen of plot twists, so all the greatest things, you may’t actually show. Because then it wouldn’t be so exciting when you see it in the movie."
Robbie said in the same interview:
“Marketing is very uncharted territory in so many ways that everyone is kind of learning together. And sometimes what you don’t know is a wonderful gift. In the marketing of Saltburn, I was like, ‘Why are we doing a 30-second teaser trailer? Why can’t we do something called tasters, and it can be seven to 10 seconds?’ And everyone’s like, ‘Yeah, let’s do that then. If it works, cool, and if it doesn’t …’”
Related:10 Lavish Movies Like Saltburn to Watch Next
Bringing Saltburn to Life
While Margot Robbie and her partners at LuckyChap were busy producing and marketingSaltburn, filmmaker Emerald Fennell was busy wearing a trio of hats (writer, producer, director) as she helms the black comedy. Set in the mid-2000s, Fennell’s film, which is also a psychological thriller, followsan eclectic mix of charactersled by actor Barry Keoghan’s Oxford man, Oliver Quick. And Robbie commended the way Fennell can immerse others in her storytelling. Robbie said in the same interview:
“It didn’t feel that shocking in the script, because Emerald immerses you into a world so quickly. She’s so masterful at tone and plot; she gets you into it so quickly — you’re just immediately like, ‘I’m in this world.’ So, by the time you get to something like the bathtub scene, she’s primed you for it. She’s got you. You’re, like, picking at a scab; you’re like, ‘I can’t help myself.’ Or like popping a pimple: I know I shouldn’t squeeze, but I’m gonna.”
Are therescandalous moments inSaltburn? The answer is: absolutely! But Robbie points out that Fennell’s approach to the material is as much erudite and thought-provoking as it is unapologetic and evocative in nature. Robbie also told Variety:
“I wish I could think of a prettier one [analogy]. But she does that. And I think there’s something intentionally disgusting and satisfying about where you get to in Saltburn. Like, I think she wanted you to be equally as disgusted as you are titillated, and equally as shocked as you are by finding that depravity in yourself. She gets in your brain and she kind of taps into the most depraved parts of it, so that you’re complicit in the story. That’s the watercooler moment — the thing that people are talking about two weeks afterwards.”
The Talented Mr. Ripley-esqueSaltburnis available to stream on Prime Video, at the time of this writing. And be sure to check outMovieWeb’s review ofSaltburnand the film’s trailer (below) right now.
