Academy Award-nominated actress Margot Robbie talks to global fashion magazine PORTER about marriage, tackling the iconic role of historic monarch, Elizabeth I in Mary Queen of Scots; finally working with Quentin Tarantino, and why she hates how fame has made her cynical
Yes, you’re gonna get screwed over, you’re gonna get your feelings hurt, people will be taking advantage. But, for the sake of your happiness and sanity, presume the best in people.
Robbie speaks candidly to PORTER’s Features Director, Vassi Chamberlain, in the Winter Escape issue (on sale December 7), photographed by Yelena Yemchuk and styled by Camille Bidault-Waddington. The 28-year-old natural beauty was shot in Los Angeles, where she was filming the highly anticipated Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. Working with the award-winning director was a “life goal” and she tells PORTER
When I first sat down with my team in America and they asked me what I wanted in my career: ‘Pie in the sky? Tarantino.’
The warm, down-to-earth actress has proven she is a master of transformation, having won critical acclaim for her satirical portrayal of Tonya Harding in I, Tonya, and this month will take on the role of Elizabeth I in Mary Queen of Scots alongside Saoirse Ronan. Robbie tells PORTER she had trepidation about playing the iconic English monarch. “She’s been portrayed on screen by some of the world’s greatest actresses, including Cate Blanchett and [Dame] Judi Dench. Who am I to think that I could join that legacy? So initially I thought, ‘No chance, no way.’ I didn’t think I could pull it off.”
The Australian native also talks marriage (Robbie married screenwriter and producer Tom Ackerley in 2016). “Being married is actually the most fun ever, life got way more fun somehow. I have a responsibility being someone’s wife, I want to be better.” Robbie also speaks candidly about the powerful #MeToo movement and how it has personally educated her. “I didn’t know that you could say ‘I have been sexually harassed’ without someone physically touching you, that you could say ‘That’s not OK.’ I had no idea. I now know because I’ve researched what constitutes illegal sexual harassment so as to have negative connotations for your job and how you get paid.”
I have been struck by the quiet but impressively strategic way Margot Robbie has approached her career. In the wake of #MeToo, it has been invigorating to see Hollywood’s leading ladies take charge, with many now adding producer, writer or director to their résumés. Robbie is the absolute embodiment of this change and shift of incredible women leading the way for the next generation.
PORTER’s editor-in-chief Lucy Yeomans says.
PORTER speaks to the double-amputee, motivational speaker and model Aimee Mullins about adding Hollywood actress to her extraordinary résumé of achievements. The Paralympian also reminisces about her late friend Lee McQueen, having opened the Spring/Summer 1999 Alexander McQueen show 20- years ago, wearing hand-carved wooden prostheses designed by McQueen. “They were so beautiful they invited you to look. Not for shock value. Shocking is too easy. To provoke thought.”
Also within the issue, PORTER shares previously unpublished images of original supermodel Iman, who speaks about being discovered by female photographer Mirella Ricciardi and not Peter Beard – the man widely credited with discovering the model; “It was Mirella – absolutely – I met her before I met Peter. The story of Peter discovering me is very patriarchal – the pen that writes history, and all that! When patriarchies and men are involved, they usually lay claim, and we say “well, OK” – but it’s not OK!”
