174
argot Robbie opens the door to an enormous
hacienda-style mansion in Albuquerque, New
Mexico, a door lined with Halloween pumpkins
of varying sizes and hilarity. “Hi, I’m Margot!”
she offers with a huge grin. Suddenly a scruffy
little black rescue dog the size of a feather
duster leaps out, spinning in circles, and
Robbie’s smile turns to a frown of panic: “Oh,
be careful, he might pee on you!” The pooch,
named Boo Radley, jumps up and begins standing on two legs with
such panache that you forget he is actually a four-legged animal.
It is a comical moment akin to a scene out of a Woody Allen comedy that
morphs into Entourage: the bombshell movie star – dressed off-duty in
dark denim overalls, a striped red-and-blue T-shirt and white hotel
slippers – and her excitable canine named after one of literature’s most
famous characters, holding court in the middle of the desert. The rest of
the home’s residents, who come and go over the next two hours, make
upthe supporting cast: there is Josey McNamara, the friend and business
partner who appears from another room halfway through the interview,
Sophia Kerr, the childhood bestie who doubles as an assistant and pops in
from behind a stairwell, and Tom Ackerley, the handsome, laconic
husband who wanders into the kitchen from the gym. Only this is Robbie’s
real life, these are her real friends, and this is more than just a movie.
Robbie, 27, encompasses everything you want from a leading lady: she
is funny and feisty, a femme fatale with looks to die for and a business-
savvy, brilliant attitude to boot. She talks feminism and being a female
role model as easily as discussing her favourite fashions while
simultaneously crunching movie budget numbers like a seasoned
accountant. Her favourite term “100 per cent” slips into conversation as
easily as her other typical twentysomething saying, “like”; and her face
lights up at the sight of her husband as much as it does when she discusses
her absolute love for making movies. Family and friends are obviously
her primary passions, with films coming in a very close second.
It has been 10 years since Robbie burst onto our TV screens in
Neighbours before making the leap to Hollywood with a life-changing,
scene-stealing turn in The Wolf of Wall Street in 2013. Since then her
movie repertoire has run the gamut from indie films (Suite Française,
Z For Zachariah) to comedies (Focus, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot) to
blockbusters (The Legend of Tarzan, Suicide Squad). In the coming months,
she will appear in the period dramas Mary, Queen of Scots (in which she
plays Queen Elizabeth I with a receding hairline and scarred skin) and
Goodbye, Christopher Robin, in which she portrays Winnie-the-Pooh author
AA Milne’s socialite wife Daphne with perfectly British aplomb. And
while her star continues to rise, Robbie, not one to just sit back and enjoy
the trimmings of Hollywood success, is now venturing further and
stepping up into her newest role: that of producer and self-described
president of her own production company. She is taking control of her
own destiny from behind the scenes, where she wants to be a female
role model by example, in charge of producing female-driven content.
“I already work with a ton of female writers who are brilliant, and
Iwant to work with female directors,” she says. “I really want to work
with actresses my own age. I’m trying so hard to get projects up and
running with an ensemble of young female characters, because that’s
my life, my group of girls, we’re a gang and we roll together and I’m
like: ‘Why is that not reflected in film?’” She adds that a matured sense
of confidence from several years honing the machinations of
Hollywood has propelled her to take on producing. “I feel like I’ve
been in the business long enough now watching other people make
those decisions. I’ve had enough experiences to have more of an
opinion like: ‘Actually, I wouldn’t have done it like that, or I think they
should have done something different right now.’ So now I get to be
one of those people who say: “Hey, maybe we should do it a little
differently.” It’s nice to have that opportunity. It’s enormously
satisfying to build something and to be part of something and to take
control of my career.”
Albuquerque is the unlikeliest of places you would expect to find
Australia’s brightest young Hollywood starlet building her own movie
empire. But yet it is here, in the high-altitude desert plains, that Robbie
has set up court for the short term while her production company,
LuckyChap, makes a film nearby. The idea of LuckyChap was first born
in 2013 in a house Robbie shared in London with her aforementioned
entourage: Kerr, McNamara and then-boyfriend Ackerley, the latter
both British assistant directors whom Robbie met on the European set
of Suite Française. This year they all officially relocated to LA, where
newlyweds Robbie and Ackerley finally moved into a house of their
own, and the collective officially opened an office on the Warner Bros.
studio lot in January. But on this October day, the LuckyChap team have
temporarily rented this Airbnb mansion in the High Desert area at the
foot of the Albuquerque mountains, high above the city, while they film
Dreamland, the third movie to be produced under their banner. They are
also preparing to release I, Tonya, a dark comedy about Tonya Harding,
the disgraced former ice-skating champion accused of orchestrating an
attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan in 1994. The film, a bizarre true story
that delicately tackles domestic violence and comedy, received rave
reviews after it screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and
there are already whispers of Oscar buzz for Robbie’s impressive turn
as the perm and scrunchie-wearing ice-skating anti-hero Harding.
Here, Robbie is getting down to business while enjoying privacy away
from the paparazzi that this desert sanctuary affords her. In between
starring in and producing Dreamland,
she is conducting meetings for her
next projects – before our interview
she had a script meeting, the day
after she would meet with an
Australian director who had flown in
from LA especially to discuss a rather
special project. Every other weekend,
Robbie flies around the world to
promote I,Tonya before returning to
their little refuge nestled on a windy
road lined with trees that are
bursting with stunning autumnal
colours and panoramic views.
“It’s stunning here. I went for a
walk this morning trying to tire Boo
out,” Robbie says as she looks out the
window while putting the kettle on.
As if on cue the dog reappears at my feet, doing that weird two-legged
pose again. “It’s like walking into the set of an old Western. Apparently,
it’s the cleanest air in America here, too. I think we’re 5,000 feet above
sea level. And the crew are just so great to work with. It’s so beautiful,
we’re really lucky.”
Ackerley walks into the kitchen just back from a workout and Robbie
teases him affectionately about it being his second gym session of the
day, before making him a cup of tea. The close bond between the pair,
who married in an intimate ceremony in Byron Bay last December, is
M
“ It ’s n ic e
to have that
opportunity. It
is enormously
satisf ying
to build
something and
to be part of
something and
to take control
of my career”
