Once upon a time! Margot
began acting on Australian
soap Neighbours (above,
with Eloise Mignon). She
scored a role in the US
series Pan Am (right), but
made her mark alongside
Leo in the film The Wolf of
Wall Street (above right).Being with
husband Tom
makes sense
“the way
nothing has
evermade
sense
before”.Neighbours and credits the
iconic soap with giving her
the idea that she could actually
have a career in Hollywood.
“I remember thinking,
‘Okay, now I have the lay of the
land I have three options: One,
I can get fired because I’m not
good enough; two, I am good
enough and I get to stay on
Neighbours for 20 years and
what an amazing life that
would be; or three, I take the
gamble and make the jump
over to America and try my
luck in Hollywood.”
Her decision to leave
Australia in 2010 has worked out
in more ways than one given
she met husband Tom Ackerley
(29) while working on the movie
Suite Française, where
he was the third assistant
director. They became
friends, then flatmates
in London before finally
falling in love.
“We were friends for
so long,” she says.
“I was always in love
with him, but I thought,
‘Oh, he would never love
me back. Don’t make it
weird, Margot. Don’t be
stupid and tell him that
you like him.’ And then
it happened and I was
like, ‘Of course we’re
together. This makes
so much sense, the
way nothing has ever
made sense before.’”
The pair tied the knotwithout fanfare in a private
ceremony in Byron Bay,
Australia, in 2016. It was at that
point their flatmates insisted
they get their own place.
“It was our roommates
who told us, ‘You guys had a
wedding. You have to live on
your own now.’ It honestly
hadn’t occurred to us.
“We were, like, ‘Hmm?
What? Just the two of us? That’s
gonna be weird.’ And the first
time we were in a house,just
the two of us, it was weird.Nice.
But we missedhavingheaps
of peoplearound.”
MargotandTomnow
in a $4.2 millionpadin Lo
Angeles andhavestarte
a productioncompany
together,alongwiththei
closest friends.
“I’m agreatadvocate
doing businesswithyou
partner,”tellsMargot.
“Being marriedis actua
the best funever.Lifego
way morefunsomehow.
But thecouplewon’tb
hearing thepitter-patter
of tiny feetanytimesoon
though. “Ican’tcopewit
two puppies,letalone
children,”saysMargot
with a laugh.
“Lookingintomyfutur
30 years fromnow,I want
to see a bigChristmas
dinner withtonnesofkid
there. Butdefinitelynot
at the moment.That’s
100% certain.” #p before.live
os
drof
rot
”
ben
thre
ts#eaten an apple pie the night
before, so don’t come to me
for diet advice. Just have a
whole team lighting and oiling
you and you’ll look great!”
The down-to-earth star has
since earned a Best Actress
Oscar nomination for playing
disgraced ice-skater Tonya
Harding in I, Tonya and her new
role in Quentin Tarantino’s Once
Upon a Time in Hollywood is
creating more Oscar buzz.
Margot (29) admits she was
the one who contacted the
acclaimed director.
“I wrote him a letter saying
that I love his work and I’d love
to work with him one day. A few
weeks later I got a phone call
saying, ‘Quentin received your
letter and he would like to
meet you.’ So we sat down
and talked about the project.”
The project was Once Upon a
Time in Hollywood and Margot
plays actress Sharon Tate, who
was brutally murdered by Charles
Manson’s followers in 1969.
She does such a magnificent
job that Sharon’s sister Debra
says of her performance, “She
actually touched me in a way
that convinced me that she was
Sharon. She did such a damn
good job that for me, personally,
the visit was a little short.”
The talented star was raised
by her physiotherapist mother
Sarie on the Gold Coast. Like
many other Australian stars,
Margot learned her craft on