Margot Robbie is working the room, y’all. She is determined not to merely be “the girl” of Wolf of Wall Street, and I hope she succeeds. Margot has posed for the Violet Grey magazine in an editorial and interview titled “Eyes on the Prize.” She seems very ambitious, but Margot hasn’t yet pulled the “artist” card. I can appreciate that a lot. She’s very young at age 23 (although I’ve noticed that some of you are on the edge of demanding a birth certificate to prove it) but doesn’t act spoiled, entitled, or bratty. She speaks maturely but still seems like she’d be fun to hang with.

This shoot is an odd one because Margot is a relatively new Hollywood import, but she’s not always about glamming it up. Here she is wearing all menswear and is styled in an androgynous way. The end result makes her look more feminine and beautiful than ever. Exactly how does she pull it off? Pretty damn well. Her interview is hit and miss with no really great pull quotes, but I like what she has to say. Margot seems completely floored by having to wear acrylic nails for the entirety of the Wolf shoot. I can empathize. My nails get trimmed every three days, no joke. I can’t imagine wearing daggers on them:

On this photo shoot: “For this photo shoot I was trying to channel power and the idea that I ran an empire from the back of my limo. I felt like I owned that hotel, I owned that building, and I owned everything on that block. Maybe when I’m 30 that’s all I’ll wear: Suits and a cane. There’s nothing I dislike more than being in a photo shoot where they say, ‘Be yourself.’ That’s not why I became an actress. That’s what I find so funny, that you become an actor and all of a sudden everyone wants to know about you. But I didn’t become an actor so I could show you me. I became an actor so I can show you characters and never have to show you me.”

Those f—ing Wolf acrylic nails: “The first thing I said was that my character needs acrylic nails all the time because that changes everything. Well I couldn’t do anything the way I wanted to: I couldn’t wipe tears the way I would, I couldn’t brush my hair the way I would. It was a massive pain in the ass to have them on for six months. I really hated them so, so much but it seriously created the character. I was getting them done once a week. On Sunday night, I’d get my nails and my spray tan, after I finished watching football.”

She slapped Leo during the audition: “In the audition scene, I hit him in the face. It was a bit silly and it could have backfired. It could’ve gotten me in a lot of trouble but it got me the role so…I don’t encourage people to hit people to get roles but in this instance it worked. Acting 101: don’t slap your co-star.”

Her heroes: “Grace Kelly has always been my absolute idol. When she’s on camera I just can’t tear my eyes away; same with Marilyn Monroe. You can’t take your eyes off them. They have so much poise and they’re so composed and graceful and elegant and chic. But then they can do this physical comedy and in a split second, they can have you in hysterics.”

On beauty: “I guess it’s a cliché answer but the most beautiful people I know are kind on the inside. Some people just step into a room and they glow somehow. I don’t know how you get that light but maybe that’s what beauty is, that light.”

[From Violet Grey]

Here’s something else slightly interesting. After Hugh Hefner watched Margot’s full-frontal scene in Wolf of Wall Street, he started hinting that she’d be great for a Playboy appearance. Margot turned him down by saying, “I’ve put my family through enough.” Atta girl.

Photos courtesy of Violet Grey & Ben Hassett