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‘ONCEUPONATIMEINHOLLYWOOD’ACTRESSMARGOTROBBIES
tarring alongside Brad Pitt and
Leonardo DiCaprio in Quentin
Tarantino’s new flick Once Upon A
Time In Hollywood confirms Margot
Robbie as the most
sought after actress
in Tinseltown.
Worth £10 million
and with an Oscar
nomination under
her belt, Margot’s
glamorous life in
Los Angeles is a
million miles from her
childhood growing
up on a farm in
hinterland Australia.
She was raised by
her mum, Sarie, after
her sugarcane tycoon
dad Doug walked out
on the family when
Margot was young.
After he left, Margot and her three
siblings took over working on the farm,
while Margot also juggled jobs as a cleaner,
sandwich maker in Subway and a surf
store assistant.
Even now, the 29 year old struggles to
forgive her dad, only saying of him: ‘I’m
nothing like him.’ The hardship, though,
made her more determined to make a life
for herself, so she moved from the Gold
Coast to Melbourne aged 17 with a dream
to become an actress.
Her dream came true, and a year later
she landed a role on Neighbours playing
school girl Donna Freedman. Then 18, she
told a student magazine: ‘I’ve got big, bigdreams for the future. I want to go to LA
and be a massive actor over there.’
True to her word, she took a huge
risk by quitting the popular soap in 2011
and headed to
California with no
roles lined up.
After a few
minor acting parts,
Margot caught the
eye of legendary
filmmaker Martin
Scorsese, who cast
her as Leonardo
DiCaprio’s sexy
wife in the 2013
blockbuster The
Wolf Of Wall
Street, beating
competition from
Jessica Biel and
Kristen Stewart.
While she has played many a
glamourpuss on screen, Margot says: ‘I’m
not someone who walks in a room and the
record stops and people turn like, look at
that woman. That doesn’t happen.’ The
star adds: ‘People who know me, if they
had to sum me up in one word, I don’t
know what that word would be, but it
would not be bombshell.’
She continues: ‘I’m happiest when I’m
surfing or out on the farm hunting wild
pigs, building cubbies out in the paddocks
or riding around on motorbikes.’
And she will only use her enviable body
for artistic purposes, too – after getting
naked in The Wolf Of Wall Street, she was
offered huge money to do Playboy by
Hugh Hefner, but turned it down.
Instead, days after attending the Golden
Globes in 2014, the Hollywood
star left LA and moved to
Clapham in south London to
flat-share with six other friends,
where she could live relatively
anonymously.
She said: ‘It was my first time
living in London properly and
I wanted to try every pub. In
Clapham you’re just left alone
to get on with who you are, and
that’s perfect. And I like living
with lots of people. It reminds me
of the house I grew up in.’
One of her flatmates was British
assistant director Tom Ackerley,
who she’d met on the set of war
drama Suite Francaise in 2014.But unbeknown to their other flatmates,
things secretly turned romantic between
the pair after a few boozy nights out – and
they weren’t best pleased when they found
out. ‘I’m not going into the details, but s**t
hit the fan,’ Margot reminisces, adding:
‘Our house turned into The Jerry Springer
Show for a moment there. But then the dust
settled, and it was all good.’
So good, that Margot and Tom remained
in the flat share even after they got married
at a private ceremony in Byron Bay two
years later, in 2016. ‘We came home and
our roommates told us: “You guys had a
wedding. You have to live on your own
now,”’ Margot revealed. ‘It honestly hadn’t
occurred to us. And the first time we were
in a house, just the two of us, it was weird.
Nice, but we missed having heaps of
people around.’
The pair eventually decided to move
back to LA, where Margot’s star looks set to
keep rising in Tinseltown.
‘ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD’ IS RELEASED IN THE
UK ON AUGUST 15.Above: Margot
with her proud
mother Sarie.
Top: With
husband Tom
Ackerleyh Above: As Sharon Tate in Once
Upon A Time In Hollywood. Top:
In The Wolf Of Wall StreetFEATURE BY REBECCA GREENOW
PHOTOGRAPHS BY GETTY IMAGES, SHUTTERSTOCKOK!