Set in 1920s Los Angeles, director Damien Chazelle of La la land and Whiplash shows artists embroiled in excess, ambition, rise and fall in the revolution of the Hollywood industry. In Babylon, Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt star in the story written by the filmmaker, which focuses on the moment when silent movies are left behind.
“Looking at what people went through gives you an idea of the human cost that accompanied the kind of ambition that drew so many to Los Angeles,” Chazelle says in production information sent to press.
Brad Pitt plays John Gilbert, the silent movie star. But the first casting choice was Robbie, who plays Nellie LaRoy, an unknown actress trying to get a break. “My team was a little alarmed by my intensity,” Robbie says of the first time she read the script.
“I was like ‘I have to. This role is mine.’” Adds Chazelle: “For a role like Nellie, you need an actor who isn’t afraid. For me that is Nellie. That’s Margot. They are incredibly different people, but they both share an energy, a fervor and a hunger.”
The production argues that while Nellie’s story is inspired by silent film stars, it was Clara Bow’s life that inspired Robbie. “Clara Bow probably had the worst childhood she’s ever heard of,” says the actress, referring to the abuse Bow suffered.
“Clara’s parents never got a birth certificate for her because they lost two children and they were sure she would never outgrow her childhood. When I read that, Nellie really started to make sense to me. I could imagine that she always felt that every day she was on the planet she was on borrowed time, so she went looking for everything, every day.”
In an interview with Variety, the actress said that she had been surprised by the opening sequence. “I thought, it’s like La Dolce Vita and Wolf of Wall Street had a baby, and I love it. But I also thought: can we show that?
According to production, Babylon is the result of 15 years of research. “I wanted to look under the microscope at the early days of an art form and an industry. I liked the idea of looking at a changing society. Hollywood went through a series of rapid and sometimes catastrophic changes in the 1920s, and some people survived, but many didn’t,” Chazelle said.
“There is a darker side to that transition. Los Angeles transforming from a mostly rural desert city in the early 1920s to one of the world’s major megacities. Lots of gleaming buildings and sound stages rose from the ashes, but the human remains were considerable.”
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