Cover Story

FROM SOMERSET COLLEGE SCHOOLGIRL TO WORLD STAR

If you wrote a script detailing the stratospheric rise of Margot Robbie and submitted it to a producer as a plot line, it would be passed over as simply too far-fetched. Born in Dalby on Queensland’s Darling Downs she spent her formative years on the Gold Coast attending Somerset College. Her first foray into making movies was when she was cast by Aash Aaron in the low budget thriller ‘Vigilante’ in 2008 and another role in ‘I.C.U’. Before then she had limited knowledge of acting, her main performance highlights were at a circus school she attended at the urging of her mother. With limited experience she made the bold step, at the urging of friends and her then agent, to apply for a role in ‘Neighbours’. She was accepted and starred in the popular soap until 2011 where she learnt about her craft and the discipline required to be a hardworking actor. Her naiveté was revealed in an interview years later when she was surprised to discover that some of her co-stars were married with children and that it was possible to have a successful career and life as an actor. She also confessed that getting that role on ‘Neighbours’ was probably going to be the biggest thing in her career.

Ovidiu Hrubaru / Shutterstock.com GOLDEN GIRL

That attitude changed when some of her cast mates went to Los Angeles to try their luck and after weighing up her options she also took the plunge. Impatient for success she harangued her agent to help her and his advice was be patient, save money and learn the ropes during pilot season. There were of course other hurdles to overcome. First and foremost was that as a born and bred Queenslander her strong Aussie accent, while considered cute by Americans, was not going to cut it in the industry. She went to a dialect coach who helped her lose that ‘bush twang’ and trained her to sound like an American. Her talent and drive helped because very quickly she was shooting a pilot in New York City. For a young woman who thought the Gold Coast was a ‘big’ city when compared with Dalby, the culture shock must have been enormous.

The big break came when she was cast in TV series ‘Pan Am’, a fictional portrayal of the lives of a flight crew based on the popular American airline. While it didn’t last as a series it did give her prominence which in turn had her cast in her breakthrough role as Naomi Lapaglia, the wife of Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’. Her screen stealing role and the sight of her purring towards Leonardo electrified audiences and suddenly she was the name on everybody’s lips.

If there is one year that would have to rank as the moment it all started happening both professionally and privately it would be 2016. She appeared in ‘The Legend of Tarzan’ and lit up the screen as the bubble gum popping, baseball bat wielding mischief maker Harley Quinn in ‘Suicide Squad’. It was also 2016 that she married Tom Ackerly, a British assistant director she had met on the set of ‘Suite Francaise’ in 2013. Their relationship had blossomed away from the flash lights and gossip magazines until they held a surprise wedding surrounded by close friends and family in Byron Bay. That union was also the start of Lucky Chap Productions, they formed with Josey McNamara and Sophia Kerr, which had as its main focus promoting female stories featuring female writers, producers and directors. The movie ‘I, Tonya’ was one of those productions with Margot in the lead role of Tonya Harding and for which she received the first of her two Academy Award nominations. Other projects by Lucky Chap have included the TV series ‘Dollface’ and the 2020 release ‘Birds of Prey’, a $75 million project with Margot reprising her role of Harley Quinn. Besides the Oscar nominations Margot has also been nominated for four Golden Globe Awards and five BAFTA Awards. To show how far she has come in such a short time she listed as being one of the world’s highest-paid actresses in 2019 by Forbes Magazine. If you are a believer that thoughts or wishes can manifest into reality, then Margot’s role as Sharon Tate in Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ will emphasise that belief. The iconic director has long stated that he only intends to do 10 movies and this was to be his ninth. She famously wrote him a letter asking to be considered for any part in the upcoming shoot. In an interview with Quentin in Vogue she outlined part of the reason for the unconventional approach. “I had wanted to write the letter for years and years and years. Because I’d heard you were going to do 10 movies and I couldn’t bear the thought I would miss the boat and never see what one of your film sets was like: I needed to figure out a way to get on to set. Maybe

I could even hold a door in the back of a scene,” she laughed. “But at the same time I wasn’t really in the right position to reach out to Quentin Tarantino and say: ‘Hello, my name is Margot and can I come visit your sets?” For his part, there was never any doubt as to who would play the role. “I’m not thinking about who is going to play Sharon at all, because for me there was no number two – it was you,” said Quentin. “You suggested her in so many different ways and you can more than hold your weight in this gigantic triangle that I’m trying to carry with three leads to tell the story. But this was the year you exploded and were now the most popular actress in town. It was something like within two weeks of me finishing the script, having it typed up, and out of the blue I get a letter sent to my house and it’s from you. I’m like, ‘What?!’ One minute I’m thinking about you and then I get this letter. In it you expressed that you’ve been a fan of my work for a long time – you and your whole family – and you say: ‘I just want you to know if there’s something you’d like me for, just let me know.’ It was damn near romantic the way the letter was written because it was so great. It was exactly what I wanted to hear. I couldn’t believe the happenstance of it all. Within a week we got together and were talking.” That was validation in the industry on an epic level – one of the most admired directors in Hollywood had nominated her as someone he really wanted to work with in his penultimate film. The level of fame and control she had in all aspects of her life both professionally and personally was at an all-time high. During her rapid rise to the top she had worked with and more than held her own with some of Hollywood’s biggest names. In 2015 she had appeared alongside Will Smith in ‘Focus’ as a grifter learning the high stakes hustle. Then ‘Suite Francaise’ with Michelle Williams and Kristin Scott, ‘Z for Zachariah’ starring Chris Pyne and then a cameo role in ‘The Big Short’ about the GFC and the subsequent stock market crash. She received great reviews for all her roles and was as ever pushing forward to garner further experience and widen her choice in parts. ‘Whiskey Foxtrot Tango’ about life as a war correspondent in Afghanistan and the historical role of Jane in ‘The Legend of Tarzan’ soon followed. Her choice of characters and how she portrayed them were important to her and she explained about playing Tarzan’s sidekick. “I definitely didn’t want her to be a damsel in distress, I just wanted her to be actively finding a way out of the situation. I didn’t want her to be sitting around waiting for someone to come save her but also to be, in the meantime, fixing the problem herself.” For someone who sees herself as anything but a bombshell, she closed out the decade in a depiction of sexual harassment at Fox News ironically titled ‘Bombshell’. Starring alongside Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman, she impressed all by the way she conducted herself on set and managed to steal the film in many respects by her wrenching portrayal. If any one project showed exactly how she had come since her first foray onto a film set on the Gold Coast it was ‘Birds of Prey’. She wanted to make an all-female, action film and approached Warner Bros. and then spent three years developing the project.

This quote sums up her attitude. “I’d been thinking for quite some time how there was a real gap in the market for a female ensemble action film. And I love action films, and I think there’s a misconception perhaps subconsciously for people: action films are for dudes, girls don’t really like them. Which is just not true. So I knew I wanted to find that, and help put that on screen somewhere.”

Now 31, she has come a long, long way in 10 years but with that global success she has managed to maintain that Australian laid back, unruffled approach to life. No histrionics or diva insecurities – do your job, make sure everyone is moving forward with you and get it done as efficiently as possible.

As one of her co-workers said, “She is more than happy to share a trailer if it means someone else will be more comfortable.” Margot Robbie may be a genuine superstar, but she has both feet planted firmly on the ground.