Barbie and Ken's power dynamic remains a work in progress. As for Margot Robbie and Tom Ackerley's partnership...
Well, that's the stuff dreams are made of.
"I am so lucky," Robbie told E! News at the 2024 Critics Choice Awards in January, where Barbie would go on to be named Best Comedy. "He likes being behind the camera. He's not fazed by any of this stuff."
Which likely was key to eventually winning the heart of the self-described "ultimate single gal," who's now pregnant with her and Ackerley's first child together.
"The idea of relationships made me want to vomit," Robbie told Vogue in 2016 about her bygone bachelorette days. "And then this crept up on me. We were friends for so long. I was always in love with him, but I thought, 'Oh, he would never love me back. Don't make it weird, Margot. Don't be stupid and tell him that you like him.'"
Nor did she push Ackerley around or take him for granted.
"And then it happened," Robbie continued, "and I was like, 'Of course we're together. This makes so much sense, the way nothing has ever made sense before.'"
Not enough can be said about the importance of being on the same page—sometimes literally, in their case.
Having decided in 2018 that Hollywood's long-gestating Barbie movie was the perfect project for LuckyChap Entertainment, the production company Robbie and Ackerley co-founded with friends Josey McNamara and Sophia Kerr, Robbie enlisted Greta Gerwig to write the script.
The 34-year-old Australian and her English husband of six years read the screenplay by Gerwig and her longtime partner (since turned husband) Noah Baumbach at the same time and were similarly gobsmacked by page one.
"We just looked at each other, pure panic on our faces," Robbie told Vogue ahead of Barbie's July 21, 2023, release. "We were like, Holy f--king s--t. I think the first thing I said to Tom was, This is so genius. It is such a shame that we're never going to be able to make this movie."
Long story short and $1.4 billion at the worldwide box office later, there was much to celebrate in the Robbie-Ackerley household (including a Best Picture nomination for both of them as producers, if not the expected Best Actress nod for Robbie or Best Director for Gerwig).
And the devoted pair are never short of friends to call should they want to throw an impromptu party.
They first met in 2013 when Ackerley served as third assistant director on the WWII-era romance Suite Française and Robbie had a supporting role. She bonded with him and several other ADs, and when she rolled back through London to do press for Wolf of Wall Street early the next year, they all decided to get a place together.
It was while sharing a three-bedroom house in Clapham with five roommates, including future business partners Kerr (Robbie's mate since childhood) and McNamara (second AD on Suite Française), that Ackerley and Robbie's friendship quickly blossomed into more.
But they kept it a secret at first, Robbie later told The Guardian, "because we weren't really taking it seriously."
Yet just like Monica and Chandler, they were meant to be, and eventually had to come clean to their housemates.
"Everyone was, like, 'No! This is going to ruin our group!'" Robbie recalled. "And then it didn't. It was fine."
Not only that, but LuckyChap—the actress said they were "just drunk" when they came up with the name—thrived, hastening the founders' move to L.A. in November 2016.
A month later, Robbie and Ackerley quietly headed to Australia to tie the knot on the beach, having never publicly shared that they were engaged. Word got out, but it was a photo of the bride—who doesn't do social media— flashing her sparkling ring finger in the direction of a camera while she kissed her groom that ultimately served as confirmation.
And then, the newlyweds were kicked out of the fold.
"It was our roommates who told us, 'You guys had a wedding. You have to live on your own now,'" Robbie told The Guardian. "It honestly hadn't occurred to us. We were, like, 'Hmm? What? Just the two of us? That's gonna be weird.' And the first time we were in a house, the two of us, it was weird. Nice. But we missed having heaps of people around."
Sure enough, when she spoke to Vogue in the summer of 2019, the Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood actress divulged that her older brother, a cousin and the cousin's husband were living with them.
"It's a common theme, isn't it?" Robbie noted. "I hate—hate—being alone."
Close quarters don't bother her, either. After Barbie wrapped last summer, she and Ackerley took the British Pullman from London and then overnighted on the Orient Express from Paris to Venice. Then, on a trip to Japan, they rode the seven-car Seven Stars across the island of Kyushu.
"All I want to do," Robbie explained to Vogue, "is live on a train."
Eating also factors heavily into their travels (they waited in line for three and a half hours to sample udon carbonara in Tokyo), but she steers clear of the kitchen at home. Or at least of the appliances that make the food.
"In our friendship group in L.A. and London, all the guys cook, and love cooking, and are really good at it," Robbie said. "And none of the girls cook, and we love drinking, and we're really good at it."
Robbie also takes pride in being great at spending time with Ackerley, seamlessly mixing business with pleasure.
"I'm a great advocate of doing business with your partner," she told Porter in 2018. "Being married is actually the most fun ever, life got way more fun somehow. I have a responsibility being someone's wife, I want to be better."
At the same time, Robbie told Vogue Australia, they were "still best friends and roommates, so nothing's really changed at all."
Other than that pear-shaped diamond ring, which she wore on weekends. "I can't obviously wear it during the week when I'm working," she said. "I don't want to lose it on set."
If she and Ackerley have to be apart, they abide by a three-weeks-at-most rule. "Even if we both have to fly to a country in-between where we both are for one night," Robbie told Porter, "we'll do it and then fly back to work the next day. And we speak all day, every day on the phone."
Besides, communication is key when you're making blockbusters like Barbie together.
Robbie has shared that she and Ackerley had long conversations with Mattel execs as the protectors of the doll's complicated image combed through Gerwig's script line by line.
"We spent time at Mattel headquarters," she told the New York Times, "we went into their factories, we watched them make a doll and we talked to people who make them. They knew we were coming from a place of respecting the brand."
But while Ackerley is a hands-on producer, he's been happy for Robbie to be the public face of Barbie (for obvious reasons in this case, but still).
"I think this'll be the [marketing campaign] they do dissertations on," Ackerley told The Upcoming at the film's London premiere, hanging out with fellow producer David Heyman while Robbie was belle of the ball. And he allowed that his wife and Ryan Gosling made for a "great combination" as Barbie and Ken.
"He's usually a very loud and friendly person," Robbie told Vogue of her press-averse husband, "but he's definitely behind the cam."
Their set-up is win-win for her, though, because, she said, "We can talk about work all the time. And then work feels like fun. And fun stuff can involve work."
And they two can do anything. Right, Robbie?
"We just get along," she said. "I think it's crazy that not all couples get along."
As if you weren't already inspired enough to go out and marry your roommate, read on for the full timeline of Robbie and Ackerley's friends-to-something-more love story:
2014: And They Were Roommates
After meeting on the set of Suite Française, Margot Robbie and Tom Ackerley co-founded a production company called LuckyChap Entertainment alongside friends Josey McNamara and Sophia Kerr.
The business partners lived together in a three-bedroom house in London's Clapham neighborhood which they shared between seven people.
February 2015: Hockey Romance
While living under the same roof, the actress and third assistant director went from friends to something more.
“We kept it a secret because we weren't really taking it seriously,” she told Elle in a 2018 interview. “’Oh, whatever, we're just mates, we're just mates.’ And then… everyone found out.”
The couple confirmed their romance during a PDA-outing to a New York Rangers game in February 2015.
May 2016: “The Best-Looking Guy in London”
Robbie revealed that she was always in love with Ackerley and initially thought her feelings toward who she describes as “the best-looking guy in London” were one-sided.
“I was the ultimate single gal. The idea of relationships made me want to vomit," she told Vogue. "And then this crept up on me. We were friends for so long. I was always in love with him, but I thought, 'Oh, he would never love me back. Don’t make it weird, Margot. Don’t be stupid and tell him that you like him.' And then it happened, and I was like, 'Of course we’re together. This makes so much sense, the way nothing has ever made sense before.'”
December 2016: Wedding Bells
The longtime couple tied the knot during a private ceremony in Australia’s Byron Bay.
Robbie raised eyebrows while wearing a shirt that read “Say I Do Down Under,” before officially confirming the nuptials by flashing her sparkling ring finger post-wedding.
September 2017: I, Tonya Premiere
The pair, who co-produced the Oscar winning film I, Tonya, revealed that they delayed their honeymoon to shoot the movie.
“We did this film instead of our honeymoon,” Robbie told Extra. “There were times we were sitting in a car parked in Atlanta freezing cold being like, 'We should be on a beach right now. We should be on a honeymoon. What are we doing?!' Following our dream.”
July 2023: (Not) Solo in the Spotlight
Ackerley joined Robbie, who wore a stunning outfit inspired by the 1961 “Solo in the Spotlight” edition of Barbie, at the world premiere of Barbie and stayed by her side throughout the press tour.
August 2023: Grecian Getaway
The duo enjoyed a vacation for the first time since the Barbie press tour sharing a passionate kiss in the Grecian waters.
January 2024: Rare Romance Comments
While the couple prefers to keep their romance out of the spotlight, Robbie praised her “normie” husband at the 2024 Critic’s Choice Awards.
"I am so lucky," Robbie told E! News' Chief Correspondent Keltie Knight on the red carpet. "He likes being behind the camera. He's not fazed by any of this stuff."
March 2024: Sparkling at the 2024 Oscars
Ackerley attended the Academy Awards for the first time as a nominee, experiencing it with Robbie - who has been nominated for three Oscars - by his side.
"It's amazing," he told A Frame. "It's obviously incredibly overwhelming at times, but it's such a celebration of cinema. And being at the center of it, it's a dream come true, truthfully."
Barbie received eight nominations in total, including Best Picture.
(Originally published Aug. 1, 2023, at 5 a.m. PT)