Barbie star Margot Robbie paid off her mother’s mortgage after success

Australian actor and producer Margot Robbie has recalled the time she paid off her mum’s mortgage, after she’d made enough money from acting.

The Barbie star told CBS Sunday Morning that her mum Sarie Kessler supported her when she first began her acting career.

“Everything I owed my mum, I had it written down. She’d take money out of the, like, house mortgage [to] lend me money. So I always knew, I was like, ‘I gotta pay that back,’” she said. “And then one day, when I made enough money, I just paid that whole mortgage off completely.”

Robbie, who starred in Australian soap opera Neighbours at the start of her career, recalled the moment she told her mum she no longer had to worry about her mortgage.

“I was like, ‘Mum, don’t even worry about that mortgage anymore. It doesn’t even exist anymore,’” she said.

“Honestly, anyone in my position, you’d do that for your mum. Of course you would,” she added.

Ryan Gosling as Ken and Margot Robbie as Barbie. Photo / Warner Bros.

Robbie, who has twice been nominated for Oscars and currently stars in the mega-blockbuster Barbie, said she feels grateful and lucky with where her career has taken her.

“I know I’m hardworking and blah, blah, blah, but I’m also the luckiest, luckiest, luckiest person in the world,” she said.

Robbie’s mother Sarie Kessler has spoken publicly about her pride for her daughter. In an interview with Vogue Australia in 2019, Kessler revealed Robbie told her she wanted to be an actress when she was young and never strayed from that path.

Kessler said she was “stunned” when Robbie announced her acting aspirations.

“Do you remember doing that movie? You loved it so much and you came home and said: ‘Mum, you’re not going to like this, but I’ve decided I’m going to be an actor,’” she said in the 2019 joint interview.

“And Margot, my jaw hit the floor because you were at a really good school. You come from a family with a medical background and a family with a business background, and you told me you were going to be an actor. I was stunned.”

Margot Robbie poses for the media prior to a news conference of the movie "Barbie." in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, July 3, 2023. The film is to be released in the country on July 19. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

The proud mum said she worried it would be “hard to be an actor and make a good living.”

Turns out, mum had nothing to worry about. Barbie, starring Margot Robbie, who is also one of the film’s producers, is currently in theatres around the globe and breaking box office records.