Margot Robbie: Gal Gadot is Barbie energy.

Margot Robbie’s “Barbie” movie casts Issa Rae, Hari Nef, Emma Mackey, Dua Lipa, Alexandra Shipp, Kate McKinnon and more as different iterations of the iconic Mattel doll, but the first actor Robbie envisioned as a Barbie in the film was none other than Wonder Woman herself, Gal Gadot. She wasn’t available, but Robbie explained to Vogue that Gadot’s “Barbie energy” became a template for casting all of the film’s Barbie roles.

What exactly is Barbie energy? “Gal Gadot is Barbie energy,” Robbie said. “Because Gal Gadot is so impossibly beautiful, but you don’t hate her for being that beautiful because she’s so genuinely sincere, and she’s so enthusiastically kind, that it’s almost dorky. It’s like right before being a dork.”

In playing the main Barbie character herself, Robbie also had to sort through questions regarding beauty and sexiness. After all, Barbie is a children’s doll.

“I’m like, ‘Okay, she’s a doll. She’s a plastic doll. She doesn’t have organs. If she doesn’t have organs, she doesn’t have reproductive organs. If she doesn’t have reproductive organs, would she even feel sexual desire?’ No, I don’t think she could,” Robbie said. “She is sexualized. But she should never be sexy. People can project sex onto her. Yes, she can wear a short skirt, but because it’s fun and pink. Not because she wanted you to see her butt.”