When I meet Margot Robbie on a warm Tuesday afternoon in Los Angeles, the first thing we need to do is clear the air: We both have the same name. “I’m so jealous, I have always wanted your spelling,” Robbie tells me. I reply that I’ve always wanted long legs, so it feels like we can call it even.
Robbie’s last few years have been dizzying: Two summers ago, Barbie-mania (dutifully celebrated by Vogue) swept the universe, which Robbie both starred in and produced through her company LuckyChap Entertainment. Then came LuckyChap’s production of Saltburn, which birthed a thousand memes about stars Jacob Elordi and Barry Keoghan. In July, Robbie then announced that she was expecting her first child with husband Tom Ackerley. And late last month came the Rouge Allure cherry on top of it all: Robbie is now the face of Chanel No. 5. The milestone is being marked by a short film named See You at 5, which was directed by Luca Guadagnino (of Challengers fame).
“My first memory of Chanel No. 5 is the Nicole Kidman commercial directed by Baz Luhrmann,” she says. “I was probably 14 and Moulin Rouge was so big. I remember the commercial so vividly. And because Nicole is Australian, it gave me that first little glimmer of like, Oh, maybe these dreams are within reach. Someone else from my country did it. Maybe I can too.”
Robbie’s signature easy glamour—today she’s wearing a black-and-gold tweed Chanel dress, and her sun-kissed hair in loose waves with a soft mauve lip—is a perfect match for Chanel. “In Australia, we like effortless beauty, but in a casual way,” she reflects. “I think French girl beauty is also effortless, but in a more put-together way. It’s hard to achieve, but I think it’s the thing we’re all striving for.”
That French-girl glam is something she nails perfectly in See You at 5, which is being revealed here exclusively. In an act of kismet, Robbie’s costar in the film is Australian golden boy Elordi (the duo will also star in a rendition of Wuthering Heights, directed by Saltburn’s Emerald Fennell in 2025). In the two-minute feature, Robbie puts on a dab of the scent and a red tweed two-piece suit before hopping in her convertible to meet up with Elordi, but fate gets in the way. And in the end, she doesn’t need the guy to dive into life (wearing another custom red Chanel number—a bikini this time).
“There’s something inherently passionate and strong about the colour red,” Robbie says. “There’s a real strength in this fragrance, too. When I think of the kind of woman that might wear Chanel No. 5, I think that she’s powerful, she has desires.”
This story was originally published on Vogue.com.
