Margot Robbie on being called a bombshell: I hate that word. I hate itso much
Margot Robbie covers the July issue of Vogue to promote her role in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The Vogue piece begins with a story about how Margot wrote a letter to Tarantino once she got a little bit of a profile in Hollywood. The letter was basically an introduction and a “I would love to work with you at some point” thing. As it happened, he had just finished the script for OUATIH. Margot is a big Tarantino fan, obviously, and she was clearly honored to work with him, but she also doesn’t sugar-coat it in this Vogue profile – she talks about what it was like to work on one of his films post-Weinstein, and after Uma Thurman talked about what happened to her on QT’s films. There’s a lot more in here, and Margot comes across as very… Cool Girl. But somehow genuine about it? Like, I genuinely buy that she’s very down-to-earth and low-key. Some highlights:
On Birds of Prey, the Harley Quinn spinoff: “I think there’s a perception that a PG female-led action film is kind of considered a chick flick.”
On being called a “bombshell”: “I hate that word. I hate it—so much. I feel like a brat saying that because there are worse things, but I’m not a bombshell. 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. People who know me, if they had to sum me up in one word I don’t know what that word would be, but I’m certain it would not be bombshell.”
Working with her husband on their production company: “We can talk about work all the time. And then work feels like fun. And fun stuff can involve work. We just get along. I think it’s crazy that not all couples get along.”
Growing up in Australia’s Gold Coast: “It’s kind of like Miami. Lots of canals and tacky people.”
Living in LA: Robbie’s older brother living with them, as well as her cousin and her cousin’s husband. “It’s a common theme, isn’t it? I hate—hate—being alone.”
On meat: “I’m such a carnivore. I’m trying so hard to do meatless Mondays, for, like, environment reasons, but f–k, it’s hard.”
Whether working with Tarantino conflicts with her female-empowerment moves: “The thought definitely crossed my mind, like, Will people view this decision as conflicting with what I’m doing on the producing side? I don’t know. I don’t know how to say what I feel about it, because I’m so grateful to be in a position of power and to have more creative control when that is embraced and encouraged now. At the same time, I grew up adoring movies that were the result of the previous version of Hollywood, and aspiring to be a part of it, so to have those dreams come true also feels incredibly satisfying. I don’t know. Maybe I’m having my cake and eating it too. . . . It would be easier, and so much more unfulfilling, not to have a production company. To not hire first- and second-time female directors, and stake millions of other people’s money, and put my name to it and everything I’ve worked for, but I’ve made the choice to do it, and I don’t regret it. On the flip side—and it doesn’t even feel like a flip side—it was my lifelong dream [to work with Tarantino], and I got to do it, and it makes me sad if people might hold that against me despite everything else I’m doing.”
The common theme of the article is this quote: “I hate—hate—being alone.” She’s always busy, always surrounded by people, surrounded by coworkers, friends, family, etc. She doesn’t want to be alone, which always makes me suspicious because I’m a loner and I love being alone and quiet with my own thoughts, and I can’t understand how people cannot enjoy that too. As for the Tarantino stuff… I think she made a choice to work with a director she always admired, but she came into it with her eyes wide open about all of the bad sh-t. I read the whole Vogue piece and at no point is she like “this was the single best experience in my acting life.” It’s more like she ticked a box on her to-do list and now she’s moving on to other things. It will be interesting to see if Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio are ALSO asked about how they felt about working with QT post-Weinstein, post-Uma. Oh wait you mean only women will be asked about it, get out of town.
Here’s her 73 Questions Vogue feature:
Cover and IG courtesy of Vogue.
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