BY ROYAL APPOINTMENT
THE AUSSIE ACTRESS TAKES ON THE ROLE OF A LIFETIME
Margot Robbie’s transformation
She’s one of Hollywood’s most beautiful actresses and increasingly one of the most lauded.
But Margot Robbie is finding her greatest success when she shuns her good looks – and her latest role, as Queen Elizabeth I in Mary Queen of Scots, is her most
dramatic transformation yet, into the 16thcentury monarch whose visage was marred by smallpox scars.
Australian-born Margot, who last year earned an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding, spent almost four hours in the make-up chair every morning to become Elizabeth.
“They’d start with a head wrap,” says Margot, “gelling and pinning my hair down.
Then we’d do a bald cap.
“Surprisingly, the quick part was the white make-up, and the heavily drawn-on blush, eyebrows and lips.”
Margot says the idea of playing such a strong female character initially terrified her.
“She is an incredibly iconic and historic figure. She’s been portrayed on screen by some of the world’s greatest actresses, including Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench. Who am I to think that I could join that legacy? So initially I thought, ‘No chance, no way.’ I didn’t think I could pull it off.”
Her resumé reads like that of an actress much older than 28, who has been in Hollywood for more than Margot’s seven years. It was in 2011 that the freshfaced Queenslander made her big move to Los Angeles, after three years on Neighbours.
After scoring a few small parts, her big break came in Martin Scorsese’s hit The Wolf of Wall Street, playing opposite Leonardo DiCaprio.
Since then, her star has been firmly on the rise – and in between dozens of films, she found the time to marry her beau Tom Ackerley, whom she met on the set of a little-known film, Suite Française. He was the third assistant director, she the third-billed actress. Instead of schmoozing with the stars of the flick, Margot opted to hang with the crew – and a few of them, Tom included, invited her to move into their London flat.
These days, Margot and Tom work together at the production company they co-founded, Lucky Chap, where Tom
produces the films they greenlight, with Margot often starring.
Their success means the idea of kids has been firmly placed on the back-burner.
“If I’m looking into my future, 30 years from now I want to see a big Christmas dinner with tonnes of kids there. But not at the moment. That’s 100% certain. Three days ago, my husband stopped by a dog shelter on the way back from the airport and we now have a pit bull puppy. We already have a two-year-old who still acts like a puppy. I was saying
[to Tom], ‘You are now cementing in my mind that we cannot have kids. I can’t cope with two puppies, let alone children.’”
Margot will also tantalise audiences in Mary Queen of Scots in early 2019, but not before she has let loose over the holidays. “I’ve got a pretty big family and everyone is pretty crazy, so it’s very loud and it’s very fun,” she says of her summer plans in Australia. “Obviously it’s hot, and everyone finds it so bizarre that we spend Christmas Day in the pool or running around outside. To us it’s a typical Gold Coast Christmas!”
And 2019 is showing no signs of slowing down, with the beauty due to take up her grittiest role yet, in Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming flick Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. She plays Sharon Tate, the actress and wife of director Roman Polanski, who was killed by Charles Manson’s cult.
Despite her success, Margot’s motto remains the same.
“I say fake it ’til you make it. Everyone’s pretending they know what they are doing and almost everyone doesn’t.”