Over the past decade, Aussie actress Margot Robbie has become a household name with roles in massive movies like Barbie, Birds of Prey, and The Wolf of Wall Street. But Robbie does much more than just acting, such as running her LuckyChap production company or working as a producer on some of her films.
Last week, Robbie officially stepped into the world of spirits with Papa Salt, a new gin brand inspired by her native Australia. The businesswoman Barbie opened up about the road to launching the liquor company in an interview with London's The Times.
It all started when she moved from London to Los Angeles in 2016 and noticed the significantly lower quality of botanicals available in the region. "It was just a funny conversation, but then we started thinking, 'How hard is it to make a gin?'" she recalled. That led her to partner with her LuckyChap co-founders Tom Ackerley—also her husband—and Josey McNamara, as well as investors Charlie Maas and Regan Riskas, to create what she insists is "five best friends’ gin" rather than just her own.
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It's not just an idea that sprang up recently; it's been in the works for some time now. "I was fully involved [with it] throughout the Barbie filming and the [press] tour," Robbie revealed. When asked about the difference between getting a movie out there and promoting a new liquor brand, she noted the simplicity of the spirits industry by comparison.
"It’s actually been really refreshing," Robbie said. "Movies are a crazy business where you are selling something that isn’t tangible, it’s an idea. You have no idea how much it’s going to make, who’s going to see it, if they’ll see it or how it will be received."
“This feels a lot more straightforward, it’s easier to predict things," she added. "You can lay this out on a spreadsheet in a way that you can’t lay out a movie idea."
While Robbie is a hard worker, she and Ackerley don't have any plans to start up any other businesses anytime soon. "Our passions are movies and drinks," she stated plainly. "And now we’ve ticked them both."
