By the time she starred in I, Tonya, Margot Robbie had already been in The Wolf of Wall Street (where she played the “hottest blonde ever”), The Legend of Tarzan, and Suicide Squad, not to mention hundreds of episodes of the Australian soap opera Neighbours and a memorable cameo in The Big Short. But she didn’t feel like a “good actor” until the ice skating biopic, which earned her the first of two Oscar nominations.
“I, Tonya was the first time I watched a movie and went, ‘OK, I’m a good actor,'” she told the audience at Tuesday’s “BAFTA: A Life in Pictures” tribute in London. Playing disgraced Olympian Tonya Harding gave Robbie the confidence to feel like she was “good enough” to “reach out to my idols,” including Quentin Tarantino. That turned out well: Robbie was cast as Sharon Tate in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the director’s favorite film of his; she even unintentionally recreated a scene from the movie in real life.
Robbie also admitted to mimicking a scene from the film in which Tate watches her own movie in the cinema, going to the same theater where it was shot by herself where Tarantino’s feature was screening. “I just went there and watched it on a random Tuesday afternoon and sat in pretty much the same seat,” she said. “I had pretty much the same experience [as Tate in Once Upon a Time], even down to the fact that the person I bought the ticket off was like, ‘But you’re in the movie,’ and I was like, ‘I know.’”
Robbie even took a photo with the ticket seller, who had a good story to tell all his or her buddies later that night. Of course, even with the visual proof, no one believed them. “That’s Photoshop, mate,” the skeptical friends said. “You didn’t actually hang out with Margot Robbie.” I might be speaking from experience here…
(Via the Hollywood Reporter)
