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.
She hates the “bombshell” word but she’s playing that kind of character in almost all her movies. Maybe she should change what kind of character she’s playing.
Really? Tonya Harding and Harley Quinn are bombshells?
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I wasn’t aware Queen Elizabeth and Tonya Harding were considered bombshells. Good for them, I guess
@Fortifiedblone @Amelia
I said almost not every.
I don’t think all of her characters have been bombshells, but to be noticed as an actress for other roles I think you probably have to play one at some point. Think long game. Also, she’s acting, she’s not actually that person, so, yeah, I can see why she’d say “I’m not that.”
Unless you’re a supermodel like Cindy Crawford whose world revolves around being seen a certain way for your whole life, I suspect most people don’t view themselves as bombshells. Beautiful or pretty, and more commonly, attractive, are probably how some might perceive themselves, but bombshell is kind of a heady word. Also sounds like a lot of pressure. Even when I think of other people, it’s hard for me to think of someone I’d categorize like that (maybe Gal Gadot is a bombshell and even then I’m not sure if she fits). It’s kind of an exclusive word and harkens back to a time when you didn’t see people in their jogging pants and Uggs, so I can see why she wouldn’t perceive herself like that.
I did think she was too pretty to play Tonya Harding though. I wouldn’t say it was distracting, but all of the actors in that movie were so much better looking than their counterparts it was glaring and slightly hilarious.
Better question is, who’s calling her a bombshell? She’s a rail-thin, very basic looking blonde—hardly a “bombshell”.
Oooh salty!
She definitely doesn’t come to mind when I think bombshell, that’s like Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe, Scarlett Johansson and Amber Heard.
Early in her career she was set up as the new blond bombshell by her team, ex. that leo movie, the other with will smith, etc.
The first time I heard about her was an article discussing the bombshell from wolf of wall street and her going nude for the movie. So yea….
How is it suspicious if somebody likes to be surrounded by people?Its the classic introvert extrovert thing,where an introvert gets there energy and stimulation by being alone and an extrovert gets there energy and stimulation by being surrounded by people….nothing remotely suspicious about that.All in all though i’ve always liked MArgot and still do she is the Cool Girl but earnest in a way that seems natural. MAybe it’s because she’s from Australia that it reads differently than say Jennifer Lawrence.
She is definitely a “cool girl” – not to mention she parades around festivals in native headdresses, throws “cowboys and indian” parties, etc. She seems nice enough, but I won’t lie, I am put off by her personality, which is not necessarily her fault, but my own aversion to that type of person.
That Vogue styling and photography looks so bad! Are they going for 90s mall glamor shot?? That eyeliner bleah. You could trip and fall with a camera at Margo’s house when she’s had the flu for a week and get a better photo.
HA!
I understand why she wouldn’t like the word bombshell. I do. But oh how I wish these stunning Hollywood actresses would think before they talk about how put-upon they are for being beautiful.
Also, I’m not sure she is telling the truth. Of course people stop talking when she enters a room, she’s breathtakingly beautiful. I think she’s trying to come across as modest.
I think it could be different in Hollywood. If Charlize Theron or Halle Berry walk in next to you, actresses in Hollywood likely face what regular people face. Or maybe it’s worse. If you’re beautiful as a regular person, I feel as though you’re more likely to stand out in a room. But with other beautiful, famous people in a room, you could fade into the background.
There are people I’ve seen in real life who are pretty enough but they stand out because no one else around them is really that pretty (or more likely, don’t feel like putting in the effort to be seen that way because they’re busy with other worries.) . But in Hollywood you’re probably a dime a dozen since everyone is putting in the effort for their jobs.
Is “cool girl” the newest insult older women use towards younger women to feel less insecure about themselves or something? Yeah, I know it is from a book and all that but I cannot see how Margot Robbie comes off as “cool girl” from this interview or most other women who are branded as such. Like are you guys really so insecure and joyless that believing that a woman can actually enjoy herself and feel secure with people around her is unbelievable?
I’m actually a year younger than her…….so no.
@Jada: Spot on!- I agree- the whole “cool girl” label is meant as an insult from insecure people (though, irregardless of age, I think). It’s a bunch of nonsense.
Ah yes the old ‘ you must be jealous or insecure if you don’t like this person’. She’s very much designed to be the ‘cool girl’, who knows if she’s like that in real life.
I hate the “cool girl” insult. I understand it’s directed at women who pretend they are (or are) okay with problematic male behavior as a strategy to get ahead, but I feel like it gets applied haphazardly to a wide swath of women who don’t fall into that category. What, we can’t be “cool” now either? It’s exhausting.
@Jada, Jules, and Tealily: Don’t feel bad for having some discomfort with that term and voicing it. In this case, it wasn’t used the problematic way. But sometimes it definitely is used as a PC way to get away with calling young women or women in general ‘wh*res’ or ‘nasty women’ (the Trump way) or to other/exclude them as feminists. Usually in those situations it’s used against women for showing disloyalty to/ discomfort with standards that are supposed to make us ‘respectable’, or for women expressing discomfort with some of the gaslighting, victim-blaming, and other abuse directed at women over those standards.
Anti-choice women occasionally appropriate the label against pro-choice women in just the way you’d expect them to. SWERFs and TERFs use it against young women (and women in general) who don’t like how they and conservatives discriminate against and abuse sex workers and transgender people. Those are just some examples of the toxic ways it gets used sometimes- it’s not about this situation specifically. But it’s good that you all said something- sometimes there’s a rush to silence women for bringing that up.
she seems like a really lovely person. I’d hang with her.
Not going to hold it against her but have lost some respect regarding her working with Tarrantino.
I loved her performance of Elizabeth I so now I love her too.
This 73 questions was a little boring… And favorite book: Harry Potter and favorite artist: Matisse are kiddy answers to me.
Conventionally beautiful people make less efforts, I find, because they are made to feel that EVERYTHING they say is important.
My husband has a friend who is the daughter of two models and who is quite the model type – the whole family together looks like a Ralph Lauren add. We love her to pieces but when she starts going on and on and on about the slightest details of her life and mind we both look at each other desperately and we commented on the fact that she is probably not used to not attracting unrelenting attention.
she is overrated in my opinion. i lost all respect for her when she took a role with tarantino the man who claimed the child rape victim of roman polanski ” was into it”. face it margo is thirsty and willing to bend her supposed morals for work. this doesn’t make her a terrible person, of course, but it definitely doesn’t make her a trailblazer or woman with abundant integrity either.
Kaiser, I totally agree with ” 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.” I think even this observation could be a NYTimes op ed, if expanded. If you ever have any extra time, Kaiser, write an op-ed for the NYTimes. You are awesome and smart. Of course, you already have an amazing platform here every day, and thank you for it.
Hear, hear!