As Harley Quinn and Barbie, she has become an icon of two distinct, massive fandoms (comic book bros and nostalgic millennial women). Her face is encoded in millions of digital memories.
At that point, what is a "Margot Robbie"? Is she the human woman in Australia who enjoys playing Uno and recovering from knee surgery? Or is she the aggregate of 10,000 deepfake performances that you curate on your personal server? Fan-Topia.Mondomonger.Deepfakes.Margot.Robbie.a...
In a 2024 interview with Vanity Fair , when asked about deepfakes, Robbie reportedly said, "It feels like a violation. Not because I don’t understand the technology—I do. But because they’re not taking my performance. They’re taking my face . And my face is my job." Currently, in the United States, there is no federal law explicitly banning the creation or distribution of non-consensual deepfakes. The NO FAKES Act (Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe) has been stalled in Congress. The DEFIANCE Act (Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits) provides a civil right of action, but the damage is done the moment a deepfake goes viral. As Harley Quinn and Barbie, she has become
And in that silence, the deepfakes will continue to dance. A digital ghost in a Barbie Dreamhouse no one ever paid for. A puppet whose puppeteers are millions of faceless fans. Is she the human woman in Australia who
The moral question is even thornier. Is a deepfake of Margot Robbie as Cleopatra (a role she never played) art or theft? If a fan lovingly crafts a 90-minute deepfake A Star is Born starring Robbie and a deepfaked Heath Ledger, is that a tribute or a desecration?