divine miss margot
Margot Robbie burst onto the scene only six years ago. Today she is one of the biggest actors in Hollywood. So what’s the secret to her success? She talks exclusively to MiNDFOOD about playing ’60s ‘It Girl’ Sharon Tate in Quentin Tarantino’s latest blockbuster, her meteoric rise to fame, her friends and family, and seizing every opportunity in life.
There’s a pivotal moment in Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood when Margot Robbie – as iconic ’60s actress Sharon Tate, primarily known for her role in 1967 cult classic Valley of the Dolls – sees her name in lights on a marquee announcing her latest movie, The Wrecking Crew. Tate, who perfectly embodied the ‘It Girl’ moniker, starred alongside Dean Martin, the biggest movie star of his generation. The similarities between the former and the current blonde beauties are obvious, and never more apparent than when driving through West Hollywood – where individual billboards for the film are dotted along the famous Sunset Strip bearing Margot’s face, along with the biggest actors of their generation: Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt.
It hasn’t been long since Robbie herself experienced her first taste of fame, and she remembers it like it was yesterday. “I know exactly where I was and what it felt like. I was in Times Square [New York] and there was a massive poster for Pan Am [the ’60s-themed TV series which ran from 2011-12]. I’d only just arrived in America a few months prior. I don’t know how long I stood there but I just couldn’t believe it was happening,” she says, eyes widening.
“I remember asking someone on the street to take a picture of me in front of the poster and they kept cropping the poster out. I kept saying, ‘Oh no, could you take it again, can you get the poster [in the frame].’” She shakes her head. “They could not for the life of them understand why on earth I wanted this giant poster in the picture.”
She laughs. “And I still have that photo. It was a thrilling and surreal moment.”
Robbie has indeed amassed many surreal moments in the last few years. Though her Pan Am adventure was brief, the failure of the series ultimately proved serendipitous – as it freed her up to accept a role in Richard Curtis’ 2013 rom-com, About Time, alongside Rachel McAdams. And then Martin Scorsese came calling, casting her as the beleaguered second wife of DiCaprio’s stockbroker, Jordan Belfort, in The Wolf of Wall Street.
In quick succession she then won starring roles in Focus (2015), The Legend Of Tarzan (2016), Suicide Squad (2016), and I, Tonya (2017), before playing Queen Elizabeth I in Mary Queen of Scots (2018). Now she has joined Quentin Tarantino’s cinematic universe.
One of the aspects Robbie enjoyed as Sharon Tate was the chance to fully immerse herself in ’60s fashion. She is even said to have been lent some of Tate’s jewellery by her sister, Debra, to wear in the film. “Sharon wore a lot of yellow, and yellow is my favourite colour, so we gravitated
towards that colour palette,” Robbie explains. “She also wore short skirts, and when you look at the images of Sharon, she had that boho chic vibe, a term I think she coined. She’d go to a premiere wearing a crop top and pants, hair not done and just wearing wild eye make-up.” Robbie shakes her head in admiration. “How does anyone pull that off?”
Director Tarantino speaks with unabashed enthusiasm about his actors. “To me, Margot was absolutely, utterly perfect. I did not have a number two. She was as beautiful as Sharon in a very similar way. They are not lookalikes, but she had to look enough like her to suggest that she could pull off something like that. And Margot has the dynamic visual and personality quality of a ’60s ‘It Girl’, which is a very special kind of ‘It Girl’. And they don’t grow on trees.” He leans forward, adding, “And besides,
I like Australians.”
There was a long list of actresses in Robbie’s age range in Hollywood clamouring to play the role – and it wasn’t just about looking the part. “She had to be able to hold her weight in this triangle with Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio,” notes Tarantino.
Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood is set against the backdrop of the notorious Manson Family murders, at a time otherwise awash with the hippie ethos of peace, love and harmony. Most heinous of all was the 9 August, 1969, murder of Tate – then 26 and eight-and-a-half months pregnant with her and husband Roman Polanski’s first child – and three friends at her home in Beverly Hills. Her slaying remains as much a part of Hollywood folklore as the deaths of James Dean and Marilyn Monroe, both enduring icons who also died young, beautiful and tragically. And while Tate’s grisly death has defined her, Robbie is bringing her back to life.
“The way Quentin wrote Sharon, you could tell he wanted to honour her memory and redirect people’s focus to her life,” says Robbie. “It’s impossible to look at Sharon Tate and not fall in love with her. Every interview, every film with her I watched, she was so easy to adore. She exuded goodness, kindness and fun. I fell in love with her, I absolutely fell in love with her,” she adds, emphatically.
Never does she emulate Tate more authentically than when she’s dancing – ’60s-style, free and joyful. Robbie lights up at the mention of these scenes. “I’m so happy you asked about that. The funnest part was all the dancing!” She grins. “I got to work with Toni Basil.” She leans forward. “You know, ‘Hey Mickey, you’re so fine …’ And she choreographed all of Elvis’ movies. She can dance the socks off me. And I love dancing at home; I love dancing with my friends, yeah.”
“To me, margot was absolutely, Utterly perfect.”
QUENTIN TARANTINO
“it’s impossible to look at sharon tate and not fall in love with her.”
MARGOT ROBBIE
Tarantino says, “I only just found this out today, but when Margot first moved to Los Angeles, she and a friend of hers had really got into the whole Manson/Helter Skelter/ historical LA thing.” Charles Manson was convinced Helter Skelter, the famed Beatles song, was a coded statement signalling the onset of a race war. “They would go up to [Tate’s home], 10050 Cielo Drive, at night, walk up the road and sit by the tree and read Helter Skelter,” says Tarantino, evidently delighted. “I said to her, ‘Why didn’t you tell me that?’ And she goes, ‘I was afraid to tell you!’”
The movie is of course set in an era well before Robbie was born. “You’re correct. Or I’m looking real good for my age,” jokes the 29-year-old. On the subject of those muchcelebrated good genes – often disguised in roles such as Elizabeth I in Mary Queen of Scots, Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad and Tonya Harding in I, Tonya, for which she earned an Oscar nomination – Robbie has more than proven there is more to her than her appearance.
With her husband, Tom Ackerley, who also acts as her producing partner, Robbie’s business acumen is thoroughly intertwined with her personal life. Although some are of the view that working with one’s husband is a disaster waiting to happen, she explains the couple is delighted to be paired up in business.
“We don’t really fight. I know that sounds weird, but we are not people who like conflict and we don’t really need to yell at each other to know that we love each other.” An impressive feat indeed, considering they have partnered now on several projects. “Listen, if you can get through producing a film together, everything else is kind of simple and straightforward,” she smiles.
“I quickly figured out that I didn’t have time to do everything separately, so I mashed them together. I work with friends, my husband and I have a ton of fun working together, and it’s a pretty sweet deal in my eyes. Friends are everything. It’s the family you make for yourself and I think the best thing I have in my life is my friendships.
“I could talk for hours about this,” she beams. “I have a girl group in Oz and we’ve been best friends since we were four years old. We’re a strong girl gang. My best friend in life is my cousin, Julia. We’re six months apart and we’ve done everything together since birth. Our families would dress us the same, except for the fact she’s six feet tall. I copied everything she did. When Julia started playing guitar, I started playing guitar.”
Truly immersed in her production company, LuckyChap Entertainment, she relishes her time behind the camera as producer. She nods. “I’m very busy and I really enjoy it. A lot of my friends will say, ‘Oh, all you do is work,’ but I love being on set, I love developing projects, I even like the financing side and the post-production and distribution of a movie.” She smiles. “I do it with people I love so it’s always fun.” She leans forward. “Don’t worry. I don’t feel robbed of my twenties. I still find time to be a 29-year-old.”
Robbie’s love for storytelling was sparked by her mother’s ritual of reading to her as a child before bed.
“I remember just being so thrilled and delighted by her stories, which she’d make up – all completely original works, much like Tarantino,” she laughs. “That is a magical childhood memory.”
Robbie will next star in the hotly anticipated drama, Fair and Balanced, about disgraced former
Fox News CEO Roger Ailes and the accusations of sexual harassment from Fox employees. Produced by Charlize Theron, who also stars as former anchor Megyn Kelly, along with Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson, Robbie’s role is that of a fictionalised associate producer at the network.
“It’s a really important piece,” she says. Considering Robbie’s first major movie was a mere six years ago, her fame and success have grown exponentially.
“Public notoriety has changed my life in different ways. It’s very weird and it gets a little weirder all the time, but that’s okay,” she laughs, shrugging her shoulders. “It’s strange. There’s no other word for it, really.”
On a roll, Robbie is definitely taking advantage of every opportunity coming her way. “Sometimes I get overwhelmed – but luckily, I’m so busy that I don’t have time to really acknowledge what’s happening. It’s a wonderful distraction and honestly, I don’t have much time to worry about the pressures of work,” she says.
“It could all be gone tomorrow, so I’m going to appreciate today.”