DECEMBER 2017 175
obvious. They briefly discuss scripts they have been reading and their
plans for the evening – they are hosting a screening of I, Tonya for the
cast and crew of Dreamland. Ackerley then gives his wife a quick kiss
and disappears into the vortex of the house and Robbie, ever the
hostess (incidentally she makes a mean cup of tea, perfected from years
of living in London), offers me something to eat and reads out the
contents of the fridge: watermelon, chicken, Japanese goji balls. She
settles on watermelon.
e move into the lounge, where Robbie
sits in the middle of an enormous
modular settee, cross-legged and by
now barefooted (Boo has stolen her
slipper for a chew toy), and while her
conversation later meanders through to
marriage, feminism and being a female
role model, she begins to wax lyrical
about LuckyChap. She is at pains to
point out that while happy to use her star power to launch the company,
it is a democratic collective of four primary members – soon to be six.
They will also include TV projects on their production slate.
“I can’t star in every LuckyChap project, but to get started that’s how
we got our traction, and so moving forward most projects I won’t be in,”
she says. “And the goal would be to eventually have a very established
production company with a varied body of work and hopefully critical
acclaim and prestige connected to the name but the company would be
its own entity, not ‘Margot Robbie’s company’ because it’s not, it’s
everyone’s company and so we’d kind of like to steer away from that.”
I ask whether it is a help or a hindrance working with her closest
friends, and Robbie shrugs her shoulders.
“A lot of people cautioned us against starting a company with our
friends, and I was actually really disappointed with how many people
told us that it was a bad idea,” she says. “But I guess we’re one of the
exceptions to the rule because we’re still all the best of friends and we
love working together. It’s perfect, because work never feels like work to
me. I’m always with my best friends, I trust them implicitly, we know
each other so well, we know everyone’s strengths and weaknesses and
how to spread projects among ourselves so that we can be as productive
and efficient as possible and it’s been great so far.”
Robbie’s fame has grown exponentially since The Wolf of Wall Street
catapulted her into the spotlight and Suicide Squad spun her further into
the blockbuster Zeitgeist (Harley Quinn was one of the most popular
Halloween costumes last year, even among Robbie’s own friends, and
has even been known to help her out when immigration officials don’t
recognise her). She is also the face of Calvin Klein Deep Euphoria
perfume, and the attention around her surprise wedding to Ackerley
was intense. The pair celebrated their big day surrounded by 50 of her
closest friends and family. Her now iconic Instagram post announcing
the nuptials, with her sticking her ring finger up to the camera, went
viral. “It’s crazy,” she says. “I’ve seen so many other people on Instagram
announce their engagement that way now. It’s kind of funny, so bizarre.”
I ask if being married has changed anything, especially now they are
working more closely together, and Robbie looks down at her pear-
shaped diamond ring. “That’s the thing, we were best friends and
roommates before and now we’re like best friends and roommates still,
so nothing’s really changed at all. Other than the fact that I get to wear
this on the weekends. I can’t obviously wear it during the week when
I’m working – I don’t want to lose it on set.”
While fame brings invites to the
Oscars and the Met Gala, Robbie’s
down time is preferably spent with her
nearest and dearest. Weekends at
home are enjoyed visiting the local
farmers’ markets, barbecuing “or
picking up her dog’s poo”, according
to Kerr. She remains tight with her
school friends from the Gold Coast,
and even went backpacking for a
month in the Philippines with the
LuckyChap team last year. “She has all
the same friends since before she was
famous,” Kerr says. “She FaceTimes
her mum, siblings and nephew [who
live on the Gold Coast] on a weekly
basis. She’s in group texts where we
all make fun of one another ... she
doesn’t get any special treatment!”
Robbie says she misses her family enormously and is extremely keen
to come back and make a movie in Australia to spend more time with
them, and support the local industry: “Ever since we got the company
up and running, I was like: ‘We need to work with young directors,
first- and second-time directors – male or female; we need to work with
female writers, directors, actresses, obviously, and Aussies wherever
possible. And let’s shoot stuff in Australia!’ That is my dream.”
Being at the centre of a business comes with a lot of pressure, she
admits, but being surrounded by her close friends keeps her grounded.
“It’s hard, I’m sure a ton of people reading this have their own business
and it’s so hard. Having a business is stressful and time-consuming, but
it’s incredibly rewarding,” she says. “There are obviously a lot of times
where I’ll have a meltdown and go: ‘I can’t do it anymore.’ And you miss
out on a lot of things, like you rarely go on holidays, you miss everyone’s
weddings, everyone’s birthdays. I haven’t been home once this year,
Ihaven’t seen my best friends, my nephew. So there’s that side to it
where it kind of hurts to sacrifice those things, but it’s also enormously
satisfying to build something and to be part of something. It’s wild to
think it’s been 10 years since Neighbours. It’s so crazy because time has
flown, but at the same time, so, so much has happened. I’m thrilled with
where I’m at in my career. I’ve got absolutely no regrets, every experience
has been incredible, character-building and career-shaping.”
I first interviewed Robbie in 2014 when she was promoting Focus,
riding off the back of her Wolf success and excited about future
prospects. She is still wide-eyed and excited, but has matured into a
whip-smart woman determined to leave a definitive mark and create
her own path under her own rules, and to have fun while doing so.
“Like sunshine” is how her best friend Kerr describes her, while Wolf
of Wall Street director Martin Scorsese says Robbie is “like no-one else”.
“Margot has ... a unique audacity that surprises and challenges and
just burns like a brand into every character she plays. She clinched her
part in The Wolf of Wall Street during our first meeting – by hauling off
and giving Leonardo DiCaprio a thunderclap of a slap on the face,
animprovisation that stunned us all,” Scorcese wrote in a tribute to
Robbie when she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential
People earlier this year. “Margot is stunning in all she is and all she
does, and she will astonish us forever.”
I, Tonya director Craig Gillespie says being able to work with Margot
“was a director’s dream”. “She came to set so prepared, having
W
→
“A couple
of years ago,
I was almost
scared to say
I was a feminist
because it
had negative
connotations,
like: ‘I f you’re
a feminist, you
hate men.’ But
men can be
feminists too”
