Returning to her homeland on the eve of an eventual Oscar nomination, Margot Robbie was all light and levity as she walked the pink carpet at the Australian premiere of I, Tonya.
Understandably a figure in high demand from a media standpoint alone, The Iris’s Peter Gray was fortunate enough to nab a brief moment with the actress to quickly discuss her latest role.
The film is quite large in a lot of aspects, yet you were working with a relative budget, how difficult was this film to get made?
Yeah it was an ambitious undertaking from a producorial point of view and a very unconventional script means people aren’t going to invest a tonne of money in it, and you have the Olympics and the period and the spanning over so many years…all those things that make a script expensive, this one has it in spades so from a logistical point of view it was exceptionally difficult but people’s passion was undeniable. And when they read the script a lot of people thought “I don’t know the hell we’ll pull this off” but I’m in! And it was that passion that got the film made.
You obviously did a lot of skating, something that must’ve been quite challenging, how did you keep on top of your training?
I spent a lot of time in the gym, just trying to build muscle mass…just basically doing all the type of things you know you’re meant to do but never are bothered to do (laughs) just that type of stuff.
I heard that outside of filming Allison Janney and yourself didn’t interact that much, was that a conscious choice?
No, we definitely hung out. We had to shoot her stuff in about 2 weeks, so she was out pretty quickly but no, in between takes we’re both the kind of actors that sit and chat and shoot the shit (laughs)
Was it hard to distance yourself from the character?
Yes and no…I don’t really stay in character. I kinda do character in between takes but then i’m back to being myself. But some characters certainly linger more than others and Tonya was one of those characters that stuck with me a bit.
I, Tonya is in cinemas now
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