Margot Robbieis one of the biggest names in Hollywood, and her massive success withBarbieonly cemented her status as a bona fide movie star.From Sharon Tate to Tonya Harding, if Robbie’s name is attached to a film, you may be sure it’ll be a critical and commercial success. Robbie got her start on the Australian soap operaNeighbourswhen she was just a teenager, though she hasn’t acted on the small screen since her role in theshort-lived drama seriesPan Amin 2011. However, her production companyLuckyChap Entertainmenthas produced the Netflix miniseriesMaid, the Hulu miniseriesMike, and the Hulu comedy seriesDollface. And inDollface,Robbie makes a brief one-episode cameo as the eccentric spiritual guide Imelda.DollfacestarsKat Denningsas Jules, a young woman reconnecting with her female friends after a sudden breakup with her long-term boyfriend.Its familiar premise with a quirky and surreal twist makesDollfaceworth a watch for fans ofshows about female friendshipsand adult coming-of-age stories.
What Is ‘Dollface’ About?
Dollfacefollows in the footsteps of shows likeSex and the CityandGirlsin that it centers on a group of four female friends, but there’s plenty that makes it stand out from its predecessors.Instead of focusing on an already established group of friends,Dollfacefollows protagonist Jules as she reconnects with her female friends after her boyfriend of five years dumps her seemingly out of nowhere.First, she rekindles her friendship with her college friends Madison (Brenda Song) and Stella (Shay Mitchell), then befriends her coworker Izzy (Esther Povitsky), who’s desperate to find a new female friend group of her own. Instead of New York City,Dollfacetakes place in Los Angeles and often pokes fun at LA stereotypes. For example, Jules and Izzy work for Woöm, a women’s wellness company à laGwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, spearheaded by their wealthy, enigmatic CEO Celeste (Malin Åkerman).
Jules is a socially awkward homebody, unsatisfied with her work and struggling to find and maintain female friendships, but when she reconnects with her best friend, the ambitious, no-nonsense Madison, her life changes for the better. Stella, her other friend from college, is confident, free-spirited, and unpredictable. Meanwhile, Izzy, Jules' new friend from work, is quirky and, at times, off-putting, desperate to be accepted into their friend group. Along with its cast of lovable yet flawed characters,Dollfacealso features guest stars likeMatthew Gray Gubler,Macaulay Culkin, and, of course, Margot Robbie.
Who Does Margot Robbie Play in ‘Dollface’?
In Season 1, Episode 8, “Mama Bear,” Jules and Izzy attend Woöm’s yearly wellness retreat at Celeste’s Malibu home, led by eccentric spiritual guide Imelda, played by Robbie. In her brief cameo as Imelda, Robbie channelsHarry Potter’s Professor Trelawney with her wild curly hair and coke bottle glasses as she leads the women in peculiar wellness exercises like goat yoga and energy readings. We’ve seen Robbie play everyone fromTonya HardingtoQueen Elizabeth I, but her role inDollfaceis unlike anything she’s done before, making for some hilarious interactions with Jules.Robbie gets to lean into comedy with Imelda’s exaggerated mannerisms and personality,but her involvement withDollfaceextends far beyond this one-episode cameo.
With her production company, LuckyChap Entertainment, which she founded with her husband Tom Ackerly, Robbie has produced many female-led films, includingI, Tonya,Promising Young Woman,Birds of Prey, andBarbie, which recentlyearned her a Best Picture Nomination. Alongside creator and producerJordan Weiss, Robbie served as a producer forDollface, andaccording to a 2019 cast interview withPeople, she was surprisingly hands-on during production. According to Dennings, who is also a producer for the show,Robbie approached her with the script forDollface, and in her words, “If Margot Robbie gives you a script, you just say yup, I’ll do it.”
‘Dollface’ Brought Something New to a Beloved Genre
There are many widely beloved shows centered on female friendships, butDollfacelargely flew under the radar while it was airing. To make matters worse, a year afterDollfacewas canceled in 2022,Hulu pulled it from the platform entirely.Dollface, which began in 2019, arrived on the heels ofGirls, one of themost famous shows about millennial women,which ended in 2017. Although both series explore millennial anxieties through the lives of a group of women navigating heartbreak, career stagnation, and messy relationships, Jules and her group of friends are less abrasive characters than Hannah (Lena Dunham) and co. fromGirls.Dollfacealso touches on the difficulties of making and maintaining friends in adulthood andstresses the unique value of female friendships.As Jules puts her ex behind her and starts to reintegrate herself into the lives of her female friends, she struggles to adapt to the standards of femininity and the particular type of womanhood she encounters in Los Angeles. When Jules is still a fish out of water among other women, she has a bit of a “not like other girls” attitude but actively wants to change that and become part of a sisterhood.Dollfaceexplores the nuances of female friendships, how friendships can dissipate when one friend gets overly involved with their significant other, and how they can be repaired. But what makesDollfacetruly stand out among similar shows that came before it isits use of magical realism.
Dollfaceincorporatesmagical realismfrom the very first episodewhen Jules' ex-boyfriend drops her off in a parking lot, where she’s then picked up by a pastel pink bus driven by a woman with the head of a cat, whom we come to know as Cat Lady. While Cat Lady, voiced byBeth Grant, acts as the devil on Jules' shoulder anda manifestation of her anxieties, it also reminds viewers thatDollfacedoesn’t take itself too seriously. When Cat Lady picks Jules up, the bus is bound for Female Friendship Station, and getting off before the stop would leave her stranded in either Rebound Town or “Guy’s Girl” wasteland. This recurring character only scratches the surface of the magical realism inDollface, which incorporates outlandish scenarios in each episode, including Jules’Wizard of Oz-style journey during a Women’s March and a fight between Madison and Stella where a literal chasm opens up between them. With its unique take on a familiar premise and an abundance of audacious, surreal moments,Dollfacestands out among similar shows about female friendships, and it’s easy to see why Margot Robbie was so passionate about producing it.
Dollfaceis available for purchase on Apple TV+ in the U.S.
WATCH ON APPLE TV+
