She is a recognized talent, an actress with a wide range. Plays in dramas and comics. Margot starred with Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Jay Roach (the film Scandal is already at the box office) and many others, and created a completely successful film company. She is only 29 years old. So there is a great temptation to ask Margot Robbie how to achieve such heights. And to find out that the word “achieve” is not in her vocabulary. But she definitely knows the meaning of much more important words for her.
«Hi, I’m Margot. Do you want to see the puppy? — with this, she almost sends me back to the sofa, from which I had just risen when she appeared. I am a serious journalist, I came to a movie star for an interview. Prepare for this meeting. Afraid of being late while rushing between the pavilions at the Warner Bros. in search of her film company. I ran in soap, nervously went into the reception room, the secretary girl asked me to wait «just a minute.» But before a minute passed, she appeared from the back rooms — a star, a producer, a big actress … with an offer to look at the puppy.
Margot Robbie is wearing high-waisted flared jeans, a striped shirt, and grandiose, rowdy platform sandals. In this image of her there is something cocky, something cheeky-teenager. As in the proposal to look at the puppy. However, she does not wait for my consent, but simply pushes the door to our right, and there I see her husband, director and producer Tom Ackerley, and in his arms he has a tiny mongrel. “We call her Flopsy. But we definitely won’t leave it at home. Really, Tom? No, no, we’re too busy for another dog! After all, yes? We cannot keep a puppy, we are not at home. Yes, Tom?
And in all this there is also something childish: she clearly has a passion for leaving the dog with her, but in her mind she understands that this is inappropriate, irrational, wrong. And she is looking for support from her husband, waiting for him to say: no, let’s leave Flopsy …
Margot Robbie is immediately obvious. Intelligible. Direct. Open. She does not want to seem like someone, she is, she is present, she is noticeable: her energy, frankness, determination — it’s all here, in these rooms in a plank bungalow with a bright pink neon sign Lucky Chap — that’s the name of her company. Why Chap? “I don’t remember, we just drank, talked about Chaplin and … yes, we were drunk. And so the «Happy Chap» appeared.
Psychologies: Who are these «we»?
Margot Robbie: Yes, Tom and I, Sophie (friend and producer Sophie Kerr. — Ed.), four of our friends with whom we lived together and opened a company, and my friends from Australia, my brother …
It looks like you have a wide circle of friends…
Well, of course! Do you have it differently?
To be honest, yes, it’s different for me. Just two or three close friends.
Well no! It’s not enough, I’ve never had that. At my wedding to Tom in Australia, there were only my school girlfriends … yes, sixteen! They are all close, we are still dating. I don’t understand at all how it is to live alone or only with your family. When our friends wanted to kick me and Tom out of the house, I resisted to the last … That is, we lived seven of us in a house in Clapham, London. There were only four bedrooms, but nothing, we lived happily.
We met at the «French Suite», the guys worked on this film as assistants, and I had a small role. Filmed in Belgium, everyone was far from home — the guys are British. We are peers, so we quickly became friends. And then, when I came to London to promote the film, we gathered in my hotel room, and someone said: it would be great to live together! And that same week they rented that Clapham house. And everyone asked me: how will you move, you don’t live in Britain? And I answered: I don’t live anywhere, but now I will — in London.
In my life, if something serves as a defining beginning, it is friendship.
We spent three happy years like that, in the evenings we lit up in clubs. Tom and I hid our relationship for a while, and then it became clear that we were together. And then the guys said: well, now you are a couple, you must live separately … But we insisted and stayed. Now, in Los Angeles, we all live separately. But I miss a common home terribly. The silence deafens me. I love noise, din, arguments, common affairs, lunches from a diner. By and large, the film company emerged from our friendship. And even my marriage with Tom.
I always thought about marriage without any enthusiasm — I thought it was so boring … I reasoned, they say, after 30, if there is the right person, you can try … But in the end, Tom and I lived and lived side by side, and then we realized that we should be together. We are not just husband and wife. But maybe mostly friends. It’s really fun: we work together — and this is a continuation of the family home, but at home … we also don’t quit work … You know, in my life, if something serves as a defining beginning, then this is friendship.
But it seemed that the whole point was in your determination … We left home for Melbourne. From Melbourne, from Australia to London, to Britain. From London to Los Angeles to Hollywood. Didn’t they move in ascending order?
Ascending? I? Rationally building a life strategy? Oh my God… If I strive, then… to boiling, to those places where everything is cooked, connected, prepared… It happens! I wanted to become an actress, yes, but in our family everyone, both grandparents and grandparents, are from the Golden Coast. Amazing place, you have to go there: mountains and white sand coast, and the Great Barrier Reef is close!..
Oh, yes, so, my mother is a physiotherapist, my father had a farm, he is now a magnate, a pillar of agriculture in Australia, he has a huge sugar cane plantation. No grandmother, no grandfather, no aunt, no uncle — no one had anything to do with art. But I liked to participate in school productions, and after graduation I rushed to Melbourne, where, in fact, I received a contract for three years in the TV series Neighbors. Perhaps this is the only thing I did, rationally defining the goal … Oh, no. One more. I wrote a letter to Quentin Tarantino.
Letter? About what?
A long time ago I said to myself: when I become a real actress, I will ask for a Tarantino film. And after the picture «Tonya against everyone» I decided. No, the Golden Globe and Oscar nominations didn’t matter here, I just knew before them: yes, I became an actress. And that’s when Tarantino wrote a letter: «I bow to your films and would be glad to work with you at the first opportunity.» Turns out he was considering me for the role of Sharon Tate in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I generally look like Sharon, the type is the same, but I don’t have breasts. And I assumed that something overhead was needed. And Quentin said, “Don’t, Margo. It won’t change the character in any way.»
What does it mean to «become an actress»? How did you get it?
Yes, this is exactly what Quentin said: when you know exactly what the meaning of your work and yourself is. What can you. What is important to you. For me, all these attributes of star status are not at all important — a separate trailer on the set, some kind of rider on trips, communication only with my filming «estate», with, as it were, «equals to you.» And I always make friends with make-up artists and assistants — it’s more fun and … more nutritious there: you learn a lot of useful things for work and life.
And this is in Hollywood, where the stars demand a bathtub filled with Evian water after a day of shooting?
Oh yes, I heard about that too. But it seems to me that these people are simply characterized by some kind of … super-insecurity. Hence the overcompensation. Did their mothers not love them?
And your mother was clearly all right …
My mother is a person with a special heart. Very big. Mom continues to work as a physiotherapist, only not with the elderly, but with disabled children. Patience — and I definitely have it — from her. And determination. And my mother has always been able to give me the freedom that I can master, or something. She raised four children alone. Yes, after the divorce, when I was five, my father paid for education, generally supported us financially, but my mother really took care of us every day.
This is a special generosity — not to limit the freedom of a child who only yesterday depended on you.
Once, when she was preparing my school breakfast, I noticed that she did not cover the whole piece of bread with cream cheese, the edges remained empty. To which she said: okay, then myself. Since then, I have been preparing for school trips alone, she did not interfere, did not correct. And my mother did not dissuade me from going to Melbourne — and I was only 17, and there I found myself completely alone with work at Subway …
Agree, this is a special generosity — not to limit the freedom of a child who yesterday, it would seem, was completely dependent on you. I really appreciate it in her. Maybe because I’m generally sensitive to restrictions? I can live on little money, in a small space — I don’t really need my own house, I always shared a house with someone. But as for my freedom…
But what about the new qualities of your life — fame, stardom? Are there any serious limitations with them?
Well no! I insist that I have the right to walk the streets! And at home, in Australia, I always stop if they ask for a selfie with me, and I like to talk to a person. It means a lot to people: they meet a countrywoman. The one that comes from a small Australian town, but has achieved serious work in Hollywood, even, so to speak, has become a star. This means that they and their children are capable of more than they thought.
But what’s really terrible about fame is that it makes you cynical. A person is nice to you, and you think: is he nice because he is brought up and sympathizes with you, or does he need something from you? I have always been … a blind optimist, not used to expecting bad things from the world. And with fame, this treacherous thought began to overwhelm me: does a person have a selfish interest in me? This is a very unpleasant feeling.
And you somehow try to cope with it?
Yeah. I decided once and for all: no matter what a person needs, whether he is sincere with me or not, it does not matter. For the sake of my own psychological health, I proceed from the fact that all people are sincere. In psychology, this is called «basic trust in the world», right? And it’s easier for me.
Are you generally not inclined to simplify — in general, in life?
I tend to … go straight, I like to overcome doubts and act, do not hide from circumstances. While auditioning for The Wolf of Wall Street, which kicked off my career here in Hollywood, I punched Leonardo DiCaprio in the face.
Here’s how it went: Leo started improvising with the lyrics, I panicked that I couldn’t match. And when she had to scream, start arguing, insulting his hero … she slapped him. Horror, of course. I was even more frightened than before — zeros immediately flashed in my head: what would be the bill for a simple star because of a black eye, for revising the filming schedule, and then for a lawsuit for insult … But Leo and Martin Scorsese laughed.
Since then, I love my fear — I like to slap it.
HER THREE FAVORITE THINGS
Dance. “I hate fitness, all those 25 sets of steel monsters and didactics of personal trainers! — the actress admits. — I love dance. And when I have time, I go to Andy Heckman’s class. She is from classical ballet, you don’t just dance with her — you dance, as it were, next to the masterpieces of culture. And her lessons helped me a lot in preparation for Tone Against Everyone. After all, I learned figure skating from scratch. And I have achieved something. I’m still skating, and still not bad, really.
Watch hockey. A native of sultry Australia, Robbie is a fanatical hockey fan who loves the New York Rangers. On the podium, she tries to be calmer — after all, then seeing herself on the pages of the tabloids with a twisted face and jumping higher than the seat is not very pleasant. But it is not always possible not to get sick actively. Therefore, in the photo at the time of the outbreak of hockey passion, she has to get into it not so rarely.
Raise dogs. “When I am asked about my plans to have children, at first I am annoyed by the inequality that the questioner unconsciously recognizes, because no one asks men such questions. And then I tell my second truth: I have two dogs, I can hardly cope with them, ”Robbie sighs. But she adores them — «dark», as the actress puts it, a mongrel and a «small, and therefore harmless» pit bull. Both were adopted by Margo’s husband, Tom, from the abandoned animal kennel.