A new move at the heart of ‘I, Tonya’
When you think of classic stories of redemption, disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding is not a name that comes to mind.
Although Harding was not directly involved in a 1994 attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan before the Winter Olympics, the ensuing scandal led to Harding pleading guilty in hindering the prosecution of the attackers and receiving a lifetime ban from the U.S. Figure Skating Assn. She has rarely been heard from since.
But that transition from worldwide fame to relative obscurity is one of several reasons screenwriter Steven Rogers found Harding’s story so compelling. A go-to scribe for Hollywood romcoms (including “Hope Floats” and “Kate & Leopold”), Rogers was looking for a career reinvention. After watching Nanette Burstein’s ESPN documentary about the skating saga, “The Price of Gold,” with his niece, he resolved to track down Harding and tell her story in a spec script.
Rogers located Harding in Sisters, Ore. “She picked up in her truck and there was no outside door handle, she had to open it for me [from the inside]. I knew I was on to something.”
Rogers ultimately interviewed her estranged ex, Jeff Gillooly, as well. “Their stories were so wildly different, they didn’t remember any- thing the same,” he said.
From that conflict, a film was born. “I, Tonya,” starring Margot Robbie as Harding and Sebastian Stan as Gillooly, emerged as one of the hottest tickets at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. It will open Dec. 8 with awards me season aspirations.
That’s fresh territory for Rogers. “It’s all new to me,” he said of the reaction to the film. “[In Toronto] I remember thinking, ‘Oh, my God ... I actually did this.’ I’ve surprised myself.”