For you youngsters out there, this won’t be a very big deal. But if you were around in the early 1990s, this is a BFD. Hollywood has finally decided to make a movie about Tonya Harding. Like, everything about Tonya Harding during the 1994 Olympics, and before and after. It was one of the craziest Olympic stories of all time, basically. Tonya Harding was the hard-scrabble ice skater who was looking to dethrone Nancy Kerrigan as America’s Ice Princess. Harding was actually more accomplished than Kerrigan, but Kerrigan got most of the press and attention because she “looked the part” of an ice princess. So Tonya and her husband hired some goons to take Kerrigan out of the competition. What’s amazing about this is that the story will be told through Tonya Harding’s perspective, and Harding actually worked with the screenwriter to get the authenticity of the story. And Deadline reports that Margot Robbie is now attached to play Harding. Which… I mean, I think that’s perfect. Truly.
Margot Robbie has come attached to I, Tonya, a script by Steven Rogers about the crazy story of Tonya Harding. Remember her? She was the ice princess who emerged from a poor upbringing and rough childhood in Portland, OR to rise to the top of the sport of figure skating with a ferocious determination and athleticism that allowed her to become the first American woman to complete the triple axel in major competitions. That propelled her to victory in the 1991 U.S. Figure Skating Championships and second in the World Championships.
She was expected to battle Nancy Kerrigan for gold in the 1994 Olympic Games in Lillehammer. Of course, Harding is mostly known for the infamy that occurred when her husband, Jeff Gillooly, and a couple of hired thugs tried to incapacitate Kerrigan by breaking her leg. They merely bruised Kerrigan, got caught, and Gillooly turned against his wife as he tried to stay out of jail. Kerrigan wound up winning the silver medal at that Olympics, and the completely distracted Harding finished eighth as her life was circling the drain. As the ensuing scandal unfolded, the USFSA stripped Harding of her 1994 championship and banned her for life.
I, Tonya is being produced by Bryan Unkeless and his Clubhouse Pictures. Robbie also is coming aboard in a producing capacity through her LuckyChap Entertainment banner….There is no director on I, Tonya yet, but Robbie is taking it upon herself to find a filmmaker to build this project around herself. Financiers also are circling.
Depending on how it’s done, it has the potential to be another To Die For, the Gus Van Sant-directed film that starred Nicole Kidman in a tale of naked ambition and the price for fame. Rogers wrote his script after doing extensive interviews with both Harding and Gillooly, capturing the absurdity of what happened but also the tragic part of the Harding saga, and trying to come from nothing to prominence in a sport where most of the competitors are the children of wealthy families that can afford all the ice time and trainers needed to get to that high a level.
More and more, I find myself liking and respecting Margot Robbie. She got some of the best reviews from The Wolf of Wall Street, and many people are excited to see her Harley Quinn in The Suicide Squad (and it looks like she nailed the part too). If done correctly, playing Tonya Harding could be one of the best and juiciest roles of Margot’s career. It has everything from physical drama, emotional drama, bad hair, a sh-tty marriage and girl-on-girl theatrics. But it has to be handled the right way, or else it will just end up a Lifetime movie. But I’m really happy that Margot is attached and that she’s hellbent on making it the right way. A lot of beautiful young actresses would not want to play a character who is so low-class, you know? But I love that Margot is committed.
Photos courtesy of Getty, WENN.
Lookswise, Amy Adams would have been a perfect Tonya Harding… They look identical!
Amy is far more attractive and as much as I love her she’s 41 or 42 and Tonya was only about 24 when it all went down.
Matt Damon acted Liberace’s 17 -27 years old boyfriend without problem
Hilarious. I had no idea Matt Damon was playing a 17 year old when he got cast in that film.
What…Amy is so much prettier than Tonya, I think.
she is but i can definitely see the resemblance! i don’t think she looks too old, either.
I think if you just look at one or two photos of Tonya and know nothing else about her, she does look kinda cute. They just don’t convey the depth of her trashiness.
I was just telling this saga to my teen sons and they thought I was making it up. They were just gobsmacked by it all. Still, I doubt they’d see a film about it.
Amy Adams with the same look she had in The Fighter is the perfect fit for Tonya. And at 24, Tonya looked much older than her years. I don’t think it’s fair to say that Amy is too old, meanwhile we have actresses barely in their mid 20s playing much older women (Jennifer Lawrence in Joy, for example).
Dani, Lawrences’s character was meant to be only few years older than her at most. Joy was someone who married an older guy and got kids right after high school instead of getting to collage.
Dani, you nailed it – Amy Adams in the Fighter is who I was trying to picture. There is a faint resemblance, at least in the photos posted above, but Amy is far prettier.
But can Amy or Margot skate? There’s going to be a lot of skating, even if they’re not doing any of the actual moves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlZI8oHwwN8
Chinoiserie – when Joy invented the Miracle Mop in 1990, she was 34 (she was born in 1956, and is currently 60). Jennifer was AT MOST 25 when this movie was filmed. There’s nearly a 10 year difference. She looked nothing like a 34 year old in the movie. It’s not just a few years difference.
Alison Brie. Let it be Alison Brie. Not only does she look the part but she can cry out “WHYYYYYYYYYY?!?!?!?!?!”. Make it happen universe.
You mean Brie as Nancy Kerrigan, who cried “whyyyy?” Actually that’s interesting casting. I can see her Nancy Kerrigan.
lol!
Eeewww. Amy would be/should be royally offended at that comparison. Albeit, I haveno sympathy for Harding and the spin she continues to put on the events of the plot she spearheaded, but she was a plain, if not homely girl where both Amy and Margot are definitely not either.
Regarding the “spin” I referenced and in response to “…capturing the absurdity of what happened but also the tragic part of the Harding saga, and trying to come from nothing to prominence in a sport where most of the competitors are the children of wealthy families that can afford all the ice time and trainers needed to get to that high a level.”
It is a well-known fact that Nancy Kerrigan was NOT from a wealthy family – NOT AT ALL! Her family was middle class – lower middle class. Her father worked overtime and her parents gave everything they had to get Nancy where she was. She did not have an edge, other than they were nice people. She wore used costumes, and presented herself better because she was a nice person and humble. She was not rich, she did not have high-priced trainers or any edge over the competition other than she simply was “wholesome”. It ticks me off that the media and Harding continue to play the poor girl with a hard knock life v. the rich born with a silver spoon in her mouth girl. NOT TRUE!!!!
Nancy’s father, if I remember correctly, even took a job at the rink running the zamboni, so she could have free ice time.
I used to work at a rink (where I met my boyfriend, a zam driver), and employees usually get free ice time. It’s why a lot of skaters try to get jobs at the rink.
I respect your opinion, but what about those Vera Wang skating dresses she always wore? I don’t think they were second hand.
Nancy Kerrigan came from a blue collar family. Her dad took out a second mortgage on their house to pay for skating. That and the fact that her mom was going blind was always mentioned in those CBS packages around Olympic time. She did wear specially made designer skating outfits, but I think that happened after she became successful enough to get those outfits. I think people are forgetting that Kerrigan medalled at the ’92 Olympic games a bronze medallists and endorsements started coming in for her. I even remember people remarking that Kerrigan was getting more endorsements than Yamaguchi because she was white and because of anti-Japanese sentiment at the time. I really don’t think Harding was considered to be more successful than Kerrigan even if she had the silver World medal. Kerrigan’s bronze medal at the ’92 Olympics would most likely trump Harding’s one silver who had 3 world championships and considered the one to beat who then happened to blow it at the Olympics. Prior to the ’94 Olympics Harding had one year of success and so did Kerrigan, but I think Kerrigan’s Olympic success would probably be considered more prestigious than the one World silver medal for Harding.
by the time nancy got her vera wangs, she was already an established skater with endorsement money
although it was tacky as hell, the lauren sheehan tonya wore the same year was very expensive. she just has bad taste.
“Kerrigan’s bronze medal at the ’92 Olympics would most likely trump Harding’s one silver who had 3 world championships and considered the one to beat who then happened to blow it at the Olympics.”
Sorry, something weird there happened to my sentence here. What I was trying to say is the following: “Kerrigan’s bronze medal at the ’92 Olympics would most likely trump Harding’s one silver. Harding wasn’t like Kurt Browning who had 3 world championships to his name and was considered the utimate one to beat in Albertville but then happened to blow it at the Olympics.”
Good thing your post is first because I was going to say the same thing. I wonder if Amy saw a script. I liked Margo in Wolf of Wall St. but I would’ve loved to see Amy in this part.
Amy Adams would have been perfect!!!! I can see her kind of looking like Tonya, with the right hair and makeup. I wonder if she was up for the job?
I wonder how Nancy Kerrigan feels about it. I don’t understand why you would want to glamorize such an event by making a movie of it from the perp’s viewpoint. Ugh.
I was thinking the same thing. The one that hired someone to beat up the other skater consulted on the project. How truthful is she going to be? It doesn’t make sense.
Just seeing how adamant Kerrigan’s been about wanting to leave the past behind, I’d bet she’s totally pissed.
Not quite that adamant. She participated in NBC’s special on the incident.
And honestly. Harding was punished very severely for the assault. That lifetime ban was a big deal – she will never be allowed to make a living with the one skill she has. 20 years later and life still sucks for Harding.
I feel likewise. While I understand most of the reasons people pity Harding…she was no victim. Yes, her situation was not fair on so many levels…but since when did two wrongs make a right? What she did was sick. She deserves everything that happened to her in the aftermath–it was nothing she didn’t earn herself.
Kerrigan may have been the pretty rich girl, but she is the victim, too. The worst she was was entitled and immature…Harding is a sociopath bitch who will not stop trolling her own abysmal actions for pity cash.
“Kerrigan may have been the pretty rich girl”
Not rich AT ALL. Please see my other comments here.
Nancy’s family was (barely) blue-collar & considered quite rough by local residents. She came out pretty & her mother sewed costumes. Peggy Fleming didn’t have money either & her mother sewed the costume in which she won her gold medal.
I remember the events well, know people who know Kerrigans, & have zero sympathy for Tonya’s nutty & desperate meanness. She stayed a train-wreck. Not a movie I’ll watch.
Nancy Kerrigan, though she didn’t deserve to be attacked, was no angel. Quite the diva and had an affair with her married coach
This. Well-known among the locals.
“WHHHHYYYYYYYYY?????”
Remember it as though it were only yesterday.
She didn’t deserve the whack but good grief she was a diva.
Ha ha wow this brings back a lot of memories. What a scandal that was. I remember Nancy did some sort of parade at Disney World or something afterwards and she was rolling her eyes and acted all snotty. The cameras caught it all. It was a huge story.
But the slant Harding keeps pushing is that the Kerrigans were rich and they absolutely were not – they were close to poor. It was only because of her parents hard work and commitment to her that she got where she was. It surely was not because they were rich. Therefore, Nancy was neither entitled nor was she pretty or rich. Harding was jealous and bitter and looking to take her down to win the gold and because Kerrigan had nice parents that Harding knew and wished she had. It was all about ruining Kerrigan – don’t think for a second that Harding’s plan to bust up Kerrigan’s leg was just about one gold medal. A busted leg for a skater would ruin their entire career. Harding was looking to punish Nancy for having the family and life she didn’t have. And for that, I hope she suffers financially and personally with the public for the rest of her days. As it is, she didn’t do any time for that while her husband and his friend, the thug, did do time for it. Harding was banned from professional ice skating and that’s all she got even though she was the mastermind behind the plot. She denies that, but we all know her husband and friend didn’t come up with it on their own and they wouldn’t have known how and when to get to Nancy without Harding’s informing them.
@ Jennifer justice
This^^^
She should have gone to prison!
i think you mean agent
her coaches were the old married scotsvolds
Is this a comedy? Because it needs to be a comedy
A dark comedy would be perfect. Dream director would be John Waters.
LOL!!!
If this actually happens, and I’m skeptical, it has the potential of being another camp classic on the order of “Mommie Dearest.”
In the vein of that Nicole Kidman movie about the murdering TV weather woman.
To Die For. The story of Pamela Smart
This !
Ooh, oh, that would be fantastic.
But that played as borderline black comedy, which Nicole did very well.
Yeah… I don’t think so. Tonya is an ugly person inside and out so I don’t see why they need to pick someone so beautiful.
I agree. Margot is one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen. I just can’t see her playing Tonya Harding who was hard looking and unattractive both inside and out.
@ Suzy from Ontario have you seen Adriana Lima or irina shayk those two are beautiful people. I think Margot is pretty, classic like Monroe but not the most beautiful.
P.s not trying to bash your opinion. Margots really pretty. Completely agree on Tonya being ugly inside and definitely out
Your eyes must have a veritable buffet on offer at the moment due to the Jaime King/Margot Robbie/Jaime Pressly triptych! They look so much alike, all pretty but also very identikit toothy Hollywood Blonde.
I think Melissa Rauche is super cute on Big Bang Theory, but the way she was styled in The Bronze would be perfect for playing Tonya Harding. I didn’t see the actual movie, but every time I saw a trailer I was surprised all over again that it wasn’t a movie about ice skating, because she looked so much like Tonya I thought it was a deliberate choice.
I thought the same when I saw the poster.
I have to wonder though how involved Tonya was in the casting of this movie. I wonder since she has victimized herself so much over the years, if she also feels like this is the person she sees in the mirror. Like does she think Margot actually resembles her?
I lived through the real thing and ended up liking no one involved. I felt sympathy for Nancy, of course, and outrage about what happened to her, but she was such a brat when she didn’t win the gold medal I lost respect for her. As for Tonya, yuck.
I’m with you. I remember it all too well and no one came out looking good at the end.
Tonya Harding lived in a house less then a block from my high school when everything went down. I would see her outside her home with a cigarette hanging from her mouth. She also practiced at our mall, at the time it had a ice skating rink in the food court. She’s our local disgrace. When she got sentenced, it was at the court house in old downtown and I remember it being impossible to try to drive around the area. She is a low class assh*le. There’s so many stories floating around her here, that she’s become a local legend.
I’m sure she’s thrilled about this. She’s getting attention and she loves it!!
I’m with you too. I remember it all too well. Tonya & her antics (broken laces incident during Olympic routine). Nancy & her snotty behavior. Seems like it was just yesterday……
You summed up my thoughts from that time, GNAT.
Nancy lost the goodwill, sponsorships, etc., within a couple years (see Disney comments, etc.). And Tonya seems so unstable, I hope the movie makers keep her at arm’s length.
Don’t forget she was carrying on an affair with her agent at the time/now husband. He was married with kids at the time. No one seems to remember that. That’s why she’s rendered unmarketable.
Same here witnessed the real deal. Not impressed with any of them.
Yasss….I’m so here for this. I’m trying to think of who would make a good Nancy…Alicia Vikander? Natalie Portman? Anne Hathway? Emma Watson? Also this made me remember that Nancy and Tonya were in their mid 20s when this all went down….now it seems like all the ice skaters at the Olympics are like 15
Taylor Swift in a brunette wig. She has such large teeth.
I just laughed like a total loon after reading your TSwift comment and picturing her done up as Nancy…
Alicia Vikander and Emma Watson are age appropriate, they could play Nancy.
They are right on target in terms of age but Anne definitely has that “Nancy” quality.
Definitely Hathaway. Alicia is too tiny – not short, just doesn’t have musculature to be convincing as a top skater.
I’m not a huge fan of hers, but for some reason Jamie Alexander came to mind for Nancy.
Didn’t a 13 year old Michelle Kwan make the team as an alternate in case Nancy or Tonya couldn’t skate?
Correct. And nobody is going to be a better Nancy than Heather Langenkamp was in that TV movie from ages back.
Oh yeah, Heather Langenkamp!!!
Anne Hathaway as Nancy. Nailed it!
For me, Amy Schumer has the Tonya Harding look.
Oh, I will absolutely see this. For anyone else who was fascinated by that whole scandal, “The Price of Gold,”an ESPN documentary about the attack, is really interesting, even though it’s frustrating Tonya still pretends she knew nothing about the attack and Nancy Kerrigan refused to be interviewed.
Jen: LOVE that 30 for 30. I agree, that’s it’s annoying that Tonya never owns up to anything, but maybe she thinks by helping with this movie she’ll reclaim some fame. As for Nancy, I am sorry for what happened to her, but I always found her entitled and annoying.
How is she entitled though? I’m not trying to be combative, I’m just genuinely curious about where this largely-held public perception comes from.
I mean, it’s not as if she came from a rich and privileged background. She grew up barely middle class to a blind mother, a father who worked three jobs, and a troubled brother.
Is this just about her persona? Because I feel like any other athlete would be heralded for overcoming such difficult circumstances and achieving as much as she did.
She did want the gold medal, like every Olympic athlete who is a front-runner and expected to win, she had a lot of pressure on her and didn’t handle her disappointment with the amount of grace that she should have.
Surely, that one incident isn’t a reason to hate her though?
I never thought of Nancy as entitled or even rude. I did think she came across as not very charismatic though. She was beautiful in the way the figure skating establishment preferred. And she looked good on the ice when she was gliding. But charm never came to mind when she’d open her mouth. I think her lack of charisma as a personality might have hurt her any time the press praised her. She was a good skater and she did sort of give off a Katherine Hepburn vibe, but I think her actual personality never lived up to how the press might have described her. I think she was simply a more reserved personality which sometimes doesn’t translate well when the spotlight is on you. I do think when her guard was down sometimes her facial expressions could be a little funny. I remember a clip where Oksana Baiul was walking by at World’s, Nancy looks up, and while her facial expression didn’t strike me as horrible, it would probably be a meme in today’s internet age.
That was a great 30 for 30!
Nancy only refused to be interviewed for the 30 for 30 because NBC did a feature on the subject at the same time with their Winter Olympics coverage, and Nancy’s participation in their production was the exchange for them adding her to their figure skating coverage. Which didn’t even go well because Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir totally stole the show.
My question is why? I wonder how much Tanya is going to play the victim in this. She did a really good job playing the victim when it happened.
Yes, she takes no responsibility for what she did. Will not watch this, I refuse to help her make money. She is a nasty person.
She played the victim when the ESPN special aired a few years ago. Tonya Harding is next level crazy.
Why has no one made a movie of this sooner?? This is brilliant!!
YES. As a Robbie fangirl, I think this is perfect. Will definitely go to see this!
Amy Schumer as Tonya
Milla Jovoich as Nancy
Perfect casting!
Ummm I like Amy but obviously she doesn’t have the body for this. Don’t use amy as an insult!
Oh I wasn’t! It was more of a face thing for me.
I actually thought Amy’s body might fit the role better than Robbie’s. Harding wasn’t model slim. Maybe she was in shape at some point when she was doing well in the sport, but by the time she made it to the Olympics after the knee incident, she did not look like an athlete ready to win a medal.
Ha ok then
Harding is a better ice skater than Kerrigan but she was just an a-hole and a shtty person. Kerrigan is a brat who gets a pass because she’s the perfect ice princess. I’m interested in this film already and I’m glad Robbie got the part.
Tonya really was not a better skater. Tonya had fantastic spins and, on the rare occasion when she got herself into decent shape, she could do big jumps. She pulled off a triple axel in competition one time when it counted and that was her big career achievement. But everything else Tonya did on the ice was horrible. She had no grace, no musicality, no artistry whatsoever. She skated like a mack truck to aerobics music while wearing some of the tackiest costumes in the history of figure skating.
Nancy, on the other hand, was a little boring, but she had excellent technique with no real areas of weakness.
I LOL’d at Tonya being more accomplished because Nancy already had an Olympic medal at that point…from the Olympics where Tonya showed up late, wheezing, and out of shape, and then foolishly attempted a triple axel in the short program. When that crashed and burned, she basically gave up on the whole thing and started with her usual litany of excuses and blame.
I still remember Tonya starting her program (wearing a sparkly red outfit, I think) and then her skate lace broke, she started crying and was putting her foot up on the wall in front of the judges to show them the broken lace. Such drama!
Yes. Tonya was all muscle and no grace.
Nancy really wasn’t a good skater either, graceful yes, a better skater than Tonya, no. She looked better but technically she was meh. Tonya technically was a dam*n good skater but she was short, stout with thick muscles and not as attractive as Nancy. She was a pure athlete and didn’t have the grace to go with it. Her legs were described as trunks by one snarky writer. If she had been as attractive as Nancy, everything would have turned out differently. The media at the time before Nancy was attacked, constantly made remarks about Tonyas apperance.from her cloths, her body and her “white trashyness”…As far as Tonya breaking down and crying,thought it was after Nancy was attacked and all eyes were on Tonya? There was speculation she had it done. Think it was more stress & guilt than her being an actual crier.
Tonya was infamously undisciplined as a skater. Both Yamaguchi and Kerrigan beat her because they worked their butts off. Tonya had natural talent, but very little follow through.
tonya had the potential to be a better skater had she consistently worked hard
however she did not
there are programs early in her career when they still had school figures where she showed so much potential to be the total package. but then she just stopped working on those areas. it’s very sad.
people focus on tonya’s family being poor. but her real liability was her mother’s raging alcoholism and abuse.
Kerrigan’s life hasn’t been wonderful the past few years. Her mentally ill brother killed their father and did time for manslaughter
People seem to forget that she’s had a failry troubled life and they expect her persona to match the perky, smiley skater that they saw on the ice in the ’90s.
She is not nor has she ever been that person.
On the contrary, she’s sardonic, intensely private, and fairly dark in terms of her persona.
I know that I’m only one of a few that actually likes her but…yeah, I think she’s a tough lady. I don’t really see the humor in what happened to her either. I mean, it was physical assault that almost ended her career as an athlete.
Doesn’t strike me as funny at all but that’s just me….
I like her too.
I like her too. Even back then, it weirded me out that people made fun of her screaming “WHY” when she was hit. Good grief — the girl had just been randomly attacked by a stranger in a way that was intended to ruin her career. What on earth was she supposed to do, sink to the floor gracefully saying “I declare, I do believe someone has struck me in the kneecap”?
I don’t find any of this particularly funny either. Both were working class girls trying to fit into a ‘rich girl’ sport. Nancy just played that part better.
And honestly, I know that Tonya Harding is a piece of work, but I still find her story incredibly sad.
Tonya Harding, when she wasn’t jumping, was kind of graceless to watch on the ice. So I think Nancy did do more than just play the part. When you look at her Olympic performance where she won silver, her actual movement across the ice looks better than Harding’s. You were expected to have a certain level of artistry, which is why Yamaguchi was considered better than all of them even her jumps were smaller than Ito’s or Harding’s. During that period of time, that’s the kind of skating judges expected — they didn’t want to give high marks to someone who looked clumsy when the skater wasn’t jumping, even if the clumsiness looked a lot less bad while skating to an instrumental version of “Push It.”
But I do agree that Harding’s story is sad. I think her story could have had a different ending. She really was a jumping wonder, and even if that wasn’t enough to get a gold, she could have capitalized on that strength in terms of marvelling the crowd and being known as a bit of a legend in that regard.
@perplexed: part of Tonya’s problem as a skater was that she was so undisciplined with her training. She had natural athletic ability, but that only took her so far without solid training habits behind her. It’s sad to see someone squander opportunity that way. And I do wonder if there is some truth to her claims about Gilooly.
i disliked her before the assault so i dont like her now
but an assault victim is an assault victim and they dont have to be nice
i hate that people dont treat the incident like a true assault, maybe because she was able to recover fully
Of all the people you could’ve studied….
I like Nancy, too. She did her best throughout some serious sh-t. Good for her.
This could be good or a total mess. I like Robbie but I get the feeling it will be the latter.
I feel like I remember an interview with Harding a few years ago where she said that her husband/those goons raped her? And threatened her to go along with it? Am I misremembering?
This is from a interview in the NY Times:
“Yeah. He stood there and watched the other two men do it. And he decided to do it, too. They said, if I didn’t cooperate and say exactly what he [Jeff] told me to say, they were going to take me out. I had a gun at the back of my head and [was raped] on the back of a truck of a car, and they told me, ‘This is what you are going to say. This is what you are going to do, and if you don’t, you’re not going to be here anymore.’ I was screaming , yelling, bleeding. I was totally bloody by the time I got home.”
So, no, you are not misremembering.
“Tonya was more accomplished” – LOL. Only according to Tonya.
During that one small window of time, Tonya WAS more accomplished.
Until she wasn’t anymore.
I think Yamaguchi topped them all, it seemed. Then she left, and the slot was left open for Kerrigan to move in into that place. And then of course Oksana Baiul came along…
I think Tonya was a good athlete, but not graceful in the way necessary to achieve the artistic portion of the mark when they had the ordinal ranking system. I never thought of Kerrigan as mentally strong until she got whacked on the knee and proved that she could overcome such a strange event to give a performance of a lifetime at the Olympics that could have potentially gotten her the gold.
Tonya was an accomplished athlete at the national level and one year at the World’s, but I hesitate to characterize her as an accomplished Olympian or international skating star. Wasn’t it Kerrigan who already had an Olympic bronze medal, or am I misremembering?? So, technically, I think that makes her at the very least equal to Harding in accomplishments. I assume that’s why she whacked Kerrigan — she knew the void left by Yamaguchi was ready for Kerrigan. At the same time, I don’t think she actually had to whack anybody to get a spot since I think Kerrigan probably would have mentally crumbled on her own. The knee incident actually seemed to make her stronger. Bad idea, Harding!
I think Kerrigan was definitely the more elegant skater, and did more than just look the part. Tonya Harding could jump, but the rest….I really don’t see how she could have been considered better than Kerrigan when it came to moving across the ice fluidly.
Yamaguchi the forgotten one and she was the better skater of the 3. Graceful & technical but she got lost in the media hoopla.
She actually was a phenomenal athletic skater, far better than the competition at the time. Too bad she had no faith in that. Text book “she’s her own worst enemy.” Her psychotic personality would never allow her to make the right decisions.
The only tragedy in this story is Tonya’s hair…that’s it! She caused her own downfall and continued spiralling. Drug abuse…sex tape…celebrity boxing. I can’t listen to this person talk about how we should all feel so sorry for her.
I have Nancy Kerrigan’s “Why, Why” cry as my ringtone for my fiance’s mother.
HAHAHAHA! That is awesome!
OMG! That is so perfect! It makes me think that there is tension over the wedding plans. Too funny.
Not just the wedding plans. She hates me. I honestly almost didn’t stick with my guy because his family is awful.
LOLLLllll . .. . . . . omg!
hahaha..
OMG! That slays!
I used to have a dog barking for my Mom’s ringtone because I found it hilarious that she would call me via cell when we were in her home and inevitably say ” there’s a dog in the house?!”
I don’t know. Margot is a terrible actress and she seems too old to play Tonya who was only 24 or 25 when this all went down.
Also, if I were Nancy Kerrigan I’m not sure how this would make me feel…
Yep, it just doesn’t sit right for me. Kind of off-putting.
At the last Olympics, Kerrigan seemed to indicate that she had gotten past the whole thing. She even seemed to express sympathy for Harding to some degree, which shocked me.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that I think she’d want to see a movie about this, but she seems to have processed the weird event in a way to get past it.
Nancy has had to deal with far worse situations in recent years. Her brother killed her father.
But she’s pretty, and that’s all that matters in Hollywood.
I don’t get this whole thing where Tonya was the better skater and that Kerrigan only got so far because was all image. Tonya did a triple axle like one or two times in competition and never nailed it again and she was ultra powerful, but Kerrigan was equally skilled in that she was able to do the hard tricks AND make them look easy. The finesse and grace that come with perfecting moves are just as important. Who is better, someone that can do a hard task or someone who can do a hard task AND make it look graceful? Tonya didn’t practice and sacrificed her career for her personal life and Kerrigan worked hard. When Tonya cries that it wasn’t fair, I don’t buy it.
And obviously this is going to be Margot’s ‘ugly me up, Charlize Theron in Monster’ Oscar-grab role.
Tonya was an excellent technical skater and Nancy, not so much. Tonya landed the triple axle many times, even before she started winning medals. She was basic when it came to technicality but looked the part. Media at the time portrayed Tonya as the white trash athlete versus the princess all American graceful skater. Not that Nancy wasn’t a good skater but compared to Tonya she was nowhere close to her talent. When Tonya became national, remember watching her big first time performance onair, the announcers were freaking out we would get to see her attempt it, 1st time American female ever, 2nd female ever and she stuck it. Crowd went crazy as well as the announcers. She was known for them even before she became big. Have to give her some credit, when she was the 2nd female ever to even land one.
That was such an epic time in figure skating. Sad but epic.
I was a baby BUT Nextflix has a great documentary on it! I was floored. What a piece of crap this woman was for doing that to her opponent!!!
I hope this is done as a dark comedy. Camp it up, people!
Dye Robbie’s hair brunette and she’d be a better fit for Kerrigan.
Yael Grobglas would be a good fit for Harding.
Agree, very similar facial structure, just wrong hair color.
Is this movie going to be in the theatre? It seems like something that should be made for tv or maybe Netflix (which would be considered a step up possibly). Tonya Harding doesn’t strike me as one of those people who people would flock to the theatre to see how a bio-pic on her would turn out.
Is Robbie going to gain weight for this role? She is a lot prettier than Harding…
Who’ll be the body double, or can Margot skate?
I also wonder about Margot’s height. In Wolf of Wall Street, she looked fairly tall to me. Figure skaters don’t generally look as tall her — well, not ones who can do a triple axel anyway.
@perplexed I looked it up, Margot is 5’6 and Tonya is 5’1. Margot’s legs aren’t as skinny and long as I thought they were. And I thought she was 5’10 or something. They’re pretty muscular, I think she looks pretty perfect for the role here
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2962890/Margot-Robbie-s-jet-set-style-leaves-little-imagination-flaunts-slim-legs-tiny-shorts-catching-flight.html
They have to use a body double. Even if she could skate, she’s not pulling off a triple axel. How many people can even do that? I wonder if they’ll have trouble finding a double.
I see this movie as only glamourizing something awful an awful person did. She’ll make income from this movie and I don’t want that either. It’s bad enough seeing her on comic video shows trying to make funny comments about other people’s fails or mistakes. I wish the Industry would ignore her. I’d like to think she has to work in a chicken factory or some other smelly, awful conditions. Certainly not getting paid to be witty on T.V….which by the way she is not. That would take some brains.
If Tonya does any press for this movie, I think it it will cheapen it. I wonder if they will use her for that purpose, though (as in, any publicity is good publicity).
I went off her when she said that in America Tina Fey is a 6 or 7, but in Afghanistan she’s a 10. I couldn’t believe that.
Mind you, she didn’t actually say it herself, the character she was playing said it. It was in the script of the movie. Either way it was distasteful and it shouldn’t have been said period.
Wasn’t that part of a dialogue in the movie? I
Don’t think dou can blame her for that line.
Dialogue? My bad. Whoever wrote that line, though, why?
She didn’t say that. Her character says that. In a movie.
I can’t stand bio-pics with actors who don’t resemble the person in question. Tonya was no Margot Robbie, and I don’t know if she can act or not, but why not see if Avril Lavigne could pull off the role -she looks exactly like Tonya Harding.
Nancy Kerrigan was made into an ice princess by her handlers. After the 1992 Olympics, where she won bronze (Tonya was fourth), she ended up getting more endorsements than Kristi Yamaguchi because she supposedly had more mass appeal than the Asian Yamaguchi. In reality, Nancy always had a dry personality which can come off as bitchy at worst, awkward at best (see the SNL gig). Her handlers did well to hide that part. Although I will say she came across as much more likable during that profile NBC did during the Olympics and I did laugh when she was quite blunt about calling her attackers morons.
So who’s gonna play Jeff Gilooly? Tom Hiddleston? Alex Scarsgard? Rob Schneider? Buscemi?
I have a feeling this will bomb though, but it will get her more attention for bigger projects. I’m impressed by Margot’s acting too. Loved her in Z for Zach.
I hope it’s a dark comedy and Tonya’s bangs get the recognition they deserve.
“Harding was actually more accomplished than Kerrigan but Kerrigan got most of the press and attention because she “looked the part” of an ice princess.”
I don’t think Harding was more accomplished. She had a silver World medal in ’91 and Kerrigan had the Worlds bronze medal in ’91 but also the Olympic bronze medal in ’92. The Olympic success gave Kerrigan some level of prestige. Harding was probably a contender in ’92 because of the previous year’s success but never successfully converted the opportunity.
If Kerrigan had only “looked the part” and nothing else, Harding and her buddies wouldn’t have gotten the dumb idea to whack her in the knee in the first place.
If anybody had a right to complain about being more accomplished but getting less press attention, it was probably World and Olympic gold medallist Kristi Yamaguchi after the ’92 Olympics, not Harding.
She was constantly mocked by writers & sports entertainers when it came to her body. Looking back on some of the remarks made about Hardings body, it would now be labeled sexist.
Yes Harding was mocked, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Kerrigan was less accomplished either. The two points of view can co-exist.
Tonya Harding had great success early on, but didn’t sustain it for long because of her own poor habits and attitudes. The criticism Tonya got was blatantly classist more than sexist – have you ever heard how any athlete, male or female, is ridiculed should they show up to perform overweight? But Tonya had the bad luck of being poor and looking like it, AND of squandering great talent.
NO! Charlize Theron maybe…
Are we not going to talk about how Margot Robbie is a) EVERYWHERE and in EVERYTHING and 2) another indistinguishable bland boring blonde?
Like…Why Is Margot Robbie. I can’t see her bring anything special to the table.
Apparently not.
I don’t get how this is good casting.
So much of Tonya’s story was about not being slender/beautiful and Margot is both those things. Are they just going to do one of those stupid hollywood ‘homely’ makeunders? Margot doesn’t seem all that remarkable to me.
Maybe I’m just cynical because she’s playing a Harley I can’t get behind (not that it’s her fault) and it’s soured my view on her.