Do you think Margot Robbie is a major contender for the Best Actress Oscar? I don’t. I actually think Saoirse Ronan could be the one to beat when everything is said and done about the awards season, even though Frances McDormand is making a late surge. Still, campaigning helps and “being seen” helps – not just in the trade papers and at screenings. It helps to get some mass-market magazine coverage too, which is why Margot is – nonsensically – posing in bikinis and summer-wear for the cover editorial of Elle Magazine’s February issue. You can see Elle’s cover package here. Some highlights:
On fear of playing a real-life character: “…playing Tonya [Harding], who’s very much alive and is widely documented, can be more intimidating.”
On directing: “I still love acting. But I’ve spent the last 10 years on a film set, and I realized that if I am pouring my heart and soul into a film, I want to be one of those voices in the conversation making decisions.”
On the first highlight of her career: “When I got to New York for the first time, I took my first paycheck, walked straight into Tiffany’s on Fifth Avenue, and bought an airplane charm that goes on my bracelet. It was the best feeling ever. I got my little blue box, and I got it for myself.”
On which skill she wants to master: “I recently bought fire-twirling poles, because I really want to get good at it. When I was backpacking in the Philippines, there were heaps of fire twirlers on the beach, and it was so cool. I was like, Wow, I really want to do that!”
I like the idea of a woman buying herself jewelry to mark special moments or occasions. I guess I’ve just been buying myself stuff for so many years, I don’t really think to myself “this is some kind of notable reward,” you know? If I want something, I’ve always just bought it for myself. As for her work as a producer on I, Tonya – I remember how quickly she put this deal together, and it actually is sort of remarkable. She went from It Girl to Major Power Player over the course of one film – she shepherded I, Tonya from page to screen in a short amount of time (short for Hollywood), and now she’s one of the leading contenders for an Oscar. She’s not just a pretty face, peeps.
Photos courtesy of Alexi Lubomirski for Elle.
Good for her. I love jewelry and I did the same with my first pay check and when I finished grad school. We need to take care of ourselves and not wait on someone else to do that for us.
And I adore Margot. I hope she surprises everyone. Good luck to her!
I just saw I, Tonya and I can’t believe she got an Oscar nomination over Vicky Krieps. I’m sick and tired of beautiful twenty year old white women getting Oscar nominations for mediocre performances (see Jlaw and Emma Stone). Three billboards is so horribly executed and completely washed over police brutality but I m still rooting for Frances.
I’m a fan. I appreciate her hustle. She doesn’t shy away from being the Hot Girl but she has other plans and talents to supplant that role.
Wise words. It’s not a man’s responsibility to buy you jewelry. Step away from the romance novels of your youth. They will hurt you.
I remember Margot’s Neighbours days. She’s done so well for herself. Go girl!
I remember her from the short-lived show PanAm (I wonder if that’s what the airplane charm was about?). She was a real standout and I’m not surprised by her film success. She really does have that It Factor. A pretty face only gets you so far, but it takes some actual talent to go farther.
Yep that’s the first show I saw her on too. I really liked PanAm and she was good in it.
I wish more people had seen Pan Am. Everyone in the cast was first rate, but Margot Robbie really stood out, you could tell right away she was going to be a star.
Co-sign to the very last sentence.
“She’s not just a pretty face, peeps.” She wouldnt be there without the pretty face though.
True. But I like that she’s using that pretty face for good. Being both pretty and hwat, it’s easier to be aggressive without men calling you a B. Same thing if you are short with a doll-like face. It’s all psychology.
I bought my own first real item of jewelry and was proud that I could and didn’t have to wait around for some guy to think of it.
Amazing how there is still such disparity between the sexes. Never once on the Sports Channel or in men’s magazines was I alerted to the fact that it was a man’s role to buy jewelry for women. Incredible how misaligned we are. It’s a wonder anyone is together at all lol. Step away from the romance “industry”. It will leave you sorely disappointed. I’m only just learning that a wedding is the most important day for many women’s LIVES! (Wish I got this 10 years ago). Honestly ladies, us guys are sadly clueless to most all of this stuff. Good luck out there. Forewarned is Forearmed
We first got pregnant and then decided to get married. I was already pretty far along when we had the ceremony and wasn’t feeling that well so all the ring shopping made me tired. So I decided to just go to a jewelry place on my lunch brake, choose something cute and just buy it.
And that’s exactly what I did. When I got home I said to my fiancee: “This is the ring you bought me. You owe me this much. Do you like it?” :))
I know….very romantic, but I love the ring and the husband and the toddler.
What a great story: Women’s empowerment couched in family values 🙂
My mother-in-law bought herself a lovely ruby ring, but now tells everyone her boyfriend bought if for her, which depresses me! Why does she equate her worth with what a man thinks of her, and will do for her?? I’m glad to hear YOUR story, and wish you much luck and happiness!
Go you good thing go!
I love being able to buy what I want for myself and not depending on others, particularly men, to do so. But not everyone gets it – my ex unfortunately hated my “independence” and the fact that I did not need him in regards to finances and lifestyle. I could, and can, provide my own and some men hate that.
That’s interesting. Maybe there is a generational gap between us because most men I hang out with are not into paying for women AT ALL. In fact women who expect to be “courted” are not very well regarded by most but I am 25 so like I said there might be generational difference.
Thank god im not in my 20s anymore! Sure being courted is old fashioned but if you invite me to dinner for a date then expect to split the check… bye! I’m not a gold digger but if I invited a guy I liked to a movie then I would pay since I invited him and he’s taking the time to hang out with me. Mutual respect and paying for things for each other exists! My husband then bf would pay for dinners then I would pay for some or make us dinner (he makes more than I do). I’m not expecting men to slay dragons but taking the time to woo me, with time/dates/experiences isn’t asking a lot.
UNA, I’m 30 LOL
In my experience I always let men pick up the check the first date. On the sencind date I offer to pay half, and when they decline I do not insist. On the third date I insist on paying for everything. Most men are really down for that. For a while. After that, they usually do not appreciate not feeling “needed” or able to provide. I’m sure there are exceptions to the rule and I hope I get to meet one at some point in my “I pay for my own stuff” life. Emotionally strong men are so rare.
Ick. Yeah I wont accept someone paying for me. If we go out, we alternate trips to the bar etc.
Men paying for things on dates feels like theyre putting a down payment on future favours. Id like it all to be equal from the get go. I am not interested in a man who needs to feel like a provider or feel in charge.
I like that idea, every time she looks at it, she will remember what that moment in her life was like, and the pride of success.
Glad to see her producing projects. The more women advocating for themselves and other women, the better.
I don’t pay much attention to the parade of cookie cutter ingenues because they come and go so quickly. But after seeing “i, tonya”, I think this one will be around for a while. And it doesn’t hurt that she is a standout beauty among a group of beauties.
She doesn’t need the Oscar yet, her victory is the film itself. Like Kaiser said, she got it done in record time and managed to get critical acclaim for it. I think she’s going to be around for awhile.
I used to be agnostic about Margo. I didn’t dislike her but she didn’t seem all that different from the other young, pretty, blonde women Hollywood fetes. I like her quite a lot now. She’s talented, driven, hard working, and apparently a nice person too. Her production company is pushing female-driven content hard, with success.
I’m Australian, so I might be biased, but I think she is GREAT! Ha ha! I have always thought she was a damn good actress – elevating even “hot girl” roles. I thought it was interesting that the whole time she was on Neighbours she was getting lessons on accents and planning her next steps to Hollywood – which shows planning and drive. And now, after a very short time as an “it girl” she has managed to get a production company up and running that has Oscar nominations for its first film and a bunch of other films coming out. She also successfully pitched WB for a standalone Harley Quinn movie with herself as a producer. Girl has serious smarts. She is doing what Reese Witherspoon started doing well into an A-List career just a few short years into an “it girl” career that could easily have faded in a couple of years. She obviously has business acumen and a plan and is working hard to achieve it. I also love that she lived in a share house in London and backpacked around the Philippines even though she was already a star. She didn’t miss out on the normal fun things people do in their 20s. That balance will serve her well. Anyway, some of her movies suck but I think she’s doing really well! I hope she sets an example for other young women in Hollywood and they start making their own films – I will always try to watch films made by women (of all ages) in the cinema.
I came to like her more and more each time I saw her in a film – I think she has the star factor that many do not. But then seeing her in interviews and learning about her producing? Definitely a fan.
I bought myself a little Tiffany’s “you go, grown up girl, with your job and your independence” present when I was just out of college and working. Remember the super trendy thick silver chain bracelet with the heart tag? Yep. Gag. I eventually sold it on ebay. But I can relate to that feeling of being able to do that for the first time
Not as fancy as Margot’s story but I bought a little pendant in the shape of a bunch of grapes to mark the end of my first month living away from home when I was 18, it was just glass on a black suede cord but that thing became my signature accessory for the next five years because I so loved finally calling the shots over what I wore.
These days my only jewellery is a couple of thin gold chains with an old sovereign as a pendant on one of them. It works nicely against my rather plain tshirts and sweaters. And it’s true that fancy jewellery does feel like an investment, which softens the blow of paying for the few pieces I bought myself.
Aw I can relate. At a moment of early success in my life, I was in Copenhagen with friends and decided to get myself a “real” watch at a little old fashioned, private jewelry shop. A meaningful expeditition on a very cold snowy day. I still have that watch (an Omega) and it still means something quite important to me.
Hasn’t Frances won everything and Saoirse nothing during Awards season? Although Margot is a long shot she still has a movie to promote and needs to get her name out. She’s not A list so she still has to promote herself for new projects.
Yeah I dont like the insinuation that all media is ‘campaigning’. Like she has a vested interest in ensuring her film succeeds so of course ahe will promote it with all her might
I do the same with jewelry. I have a handful of pendants and a watch that were all bought (by me) after a momentous event in my life. I cherish those pieces more than almost anything a loved one has ever given me. In fact, I’m looking around right now for something to mark a recent occasion – I haven’t found it yet, but I’ll know it when I see it.
I buy myself paintings to mark special moments. Sometimes jewellery, but I have found I tend to enjoy the art longer than the jewellery, so less of that now.
Go Margot!