Even before she brought Harley Quinn to the world of live action cinema, Margot Robbie was already a prime candidate for Hollywood royalty. Barely into her 30s, the Aussie star of Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood and Bombshell, to name a few, already has two Academy Award nominations, will appear in her third DC film in 2021 with James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, and is set to play the lead of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie.
Most American audiences barely knew how talented Robbie was when she first caught the eye of Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, but soon afterward, everyone knew her name. However, what they did not know was the real Margot Robbie and, save her most devoted fans, few people still know much about the actress beyond her most notable roles.
Margot Robbie is just as, if not more, interesting in her everyday life as she as on screen. Take a trip down under with these eight absorbing facts to find out how.
Margot Robbie’s Brother Performed Stunts for Harley Quinn: Birds Of Prey
Born in Queensland, Australia, on July 2, 1990, Margot Robbie is one of four children (born of Doug Robbie and Sarie Kessler, but primarily raised by their mother), but one of three that “caught the acting bug,” so to speak. Her older brother, Lachlan, has been a Hollywood stuntman for years and worked alongside his sister for the first time on Harley Quinn: Birds Of Prey, which was actually the second DC film he performed stunts for after 2017’s Aquaman. Margot’s younger brother, Cameron, has also starred in a few films, including the Australian horror thriller I.C.U., which also starred his sister, and has made a name for himself in the world of modeling.
Margot Robbie Broke Out On A Popular Soap Opera, Like Other Famous Aussies
Before The Wolf of Wall Street made her a household name, Margot Robbie began getting noticed in her homeland for playing free-spirited teen Donna Freedman on Australian soap opera Neighbours after initially being cast in a guest appearance in 2008. Robbie is just one of several Aussie celebrities who broke out on the TV series, which has ran since 1985, including singer Kylie Minogue, The Hunger Games’ star Liam Hemsworth, Academy Award-winner Russell Crowe, and Memento actor Guy Pearce, who joined the cast in 1986, the show’s second year, and remained for 450 episodes.
While Filming Pan Am, Margot Robbie Lived With Co-Star Christina Ricci
After her three-year stint on Neighbours, Margot Robbie made her American debut in Pan Am, a 1964-set series following a group of flight attendants for the titular airline in 1964 that ABC picked up in response to the success of AMC’s hit period drama Mad Men. Despite the show’s short life (lasting only 14 episodes), through the experience, Robbie found a friend in co-star Christina Ricci (Wednesday in Barry Sonnenfeld’s Addams Family movies), who shared an apartment with then rising starlet Aussie during the series’ production in New York.
Margot Robbie Needed Some Liquid Courage Before The Wolf Of Wall Street’s Intimate Scenes
The raunchiness of The Wolf of Wall Street is not to be understated, given how Margot Robbie, who played corrupt stock broker Jordan Belfort’s desirable wife Naomi Lapaglia in the biopic, has been vocal about how awkward it was to film certain scenes. In fact, on the day of the 2013 Martin Scorsese picture’s UK premiere, she revealed to Celebuzz that it took a triple-shot of tequila, a known favorite beverage of hers, to calm her nerves down before performing intimacy with her leading man, Leonardo DiCaprio.
Margot Robbie Learned How To Hold Her Breath For Suicide Squad
Speaking of nerve-racking moments in cinema, Batman’s (Ben Affleck) underwater capture of Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) in Suicide Squad seems like a stunt too risky for a movie star (unless you are Tom Cruise, perhaps). However, during a 2016 appearance on The Tonight Show, Robbie assured host Jimmy Fallon that she really performed the death-defying feat on camera by training to hold her breath for a personal record of five minutes, adding that the final cut of the film only a small snippet of how much time she really spent submerged for the scene.
Margot Robbie Mistook Prince Harry For Ed Sheeran
During another appearance on The Tonight Show earlier that same year, Jimmy Fallon could not help but reveal an embarrassing story about his guest when she was attending a housewarming party for her friend, actress Suki Waterhouse. Margot Robbie bumped into a red-headed, English-accented guest, initially unrecognizable to her, whom she would eventually identify as Grammy-winning musical artist Ed Sheeran, until discovering him to truly be Prince Harry.
Before I, Tonya, Margot Robbie (Kind Of) Knew How To Skate From Hockey
One of Margot Robbie’s lesser-known passions is ice hockey, which she first gained interest in after seeing Disney’s The Mighty Ducks and later joined an amateur league after moving to the States. Despite her skating experience from playing the sport, when she was cast as Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding for the Oscar-winning 2017 film I, Tonya, Robbie still required training from renowned figure skating choreographer Sarah Kawahara, who, as the actress revealed to W Magazine, actually worked with Nancy Kerrigan, whose infamous rivalry with Harding serves as the basis of the film.
Margot Robbie Tattooed Suicide Squad Co-stars And Crew As Harley Quinn
In addition to her aforementioned mastery of underwater acting, Margot Robbie brought another hidden talent of hers to the set of Suicide Squad, but there was nothing professional about it this time. The actress told Jimmy Fallon that she began dabbling in amateur tattoo artistry using friends and herself as practice after purchasing a “tattoo gun” on eBay and, despite her lack of any formal training, many actors and crew members from the 2016 supervillain film, including director David Ayer, allowed her to ink them. After a few mishaps, however, she revealed in 2020 that she has retired that hobby.
The Harley Quinn actress is quite a character without the makeup on, eh? Be sure to check back for more updates on Margot Robbie, as well as more trivia about your favorite celebrities, here on CinemaBlend.
