In This Divisive Movie Star Era, Is Margot Robbie So Popular Because She’s Actually Enjoying Herself?

Is it fun, being a film star? It looks like it is, but judging by the grumpiness of some of them, you might think it was some sort of poorly paid manual work. Perhaps the “nepo” babies need to pretend it’s a hard life in order to detract from the fact that they fell straight from their gated community playpens into starring roles?As one of the world’s highest-paid actresses, it would be churlish of Margot Robbie not to take great glee in her position, assured that it is all her own work and she does not inspire revulsion among significant numbers of the people who actually buy tickets to see her performances. Ms. Robbie, 35-years-old, grew up on her grandparents farm in Australia after her parents divorced when she was five, enrolling in circus school and becoming a champion trapeze artist by the age of eight. It’s tempting to use this early achievement as a metaphor for the high-flying fearlessness of her acting.After graduating she worked as a bartender and cleaner before getting her break at 18 in the Australian soap opera “Neighbours”; it seemed vivified by her presence, one of those situations where an actor and their writers “vibe” off of each other and the performance informs the script. A friend who was a regular on the set recalled her as, “Always polite, but very shy – since she made it as a film star, I’ve interviewed her a few times and she’s lovely, and talks glowingly about her “Neighbours” days, saying, ‘I’ll never work harder than I did then.'” Margot Robbie Photo by Joe Maher/Getty ImagesAfter three years she left the neighbourhood for Hollywood, and two years later she was stripping off in Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf Of Wall Street.” Somewhat like her musical countrywoman Kylie Minogue, the more she shows the more wholesome she becomes – she literally appears to have nothing to hide. Since then she has played women as disparate as Tonya Harding, Sharon Tate and Elizabeth I; it’s a hackneyed move in these #BeKind times to find the “vulnerability” beneath the surface of tough women, but Ms. Robbie finds the ultimate toughness beneath the apparent frailty. Playing Cathy in the new adaptation of “Wuthering Heights” probably wasn’t the wisest choice, but maybe because she is so real, she is best at playing real women. Still, it’s understandable that an actor would want to be more than an impersonator. Margot Robbie in “Wuthering Heights” via Warner BrothersIn “Barbie,” she got the best of both worlds, bringing someone both real and unreal to life. As well as producing, she pitched the director Greta Gerwig to “Barbie” manufacturer Mattel; her instincts were proved spot on by the record-breaking box office receipts of $1.4 billion worldwide, with Gerwig becoming the highest-grossing female director in Hollywood history. Last year’s “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” was something of a flop, as was misconceived 2022 Hollywood epic dud “Babylon,” but Ms. Robbie is more than just a film star, as Barbie proved; as soon as she had the power to do so, she shrewdly moved behind the camera, with her production company LuckyChap Entertainment, formed in 2014 with two female friends and her husband, with an accent on projects which favour female characters. “Every time I pick up a script, I want to play the guy…wouldn’t it be so cool if people pick up scripts that we’re making and always wanted to play the female role?” she said in a 2020 interview.Her fifteen-year relationship with Tom Ackerley, who she met when he was a member of the crew on an early film and married nearly a decade ago, adds to her alluring air of common sense, as does her refreshing refusal to strike political poses. But for me, even more so, it’s her unfeigned fandom over the reality television show “Love Island,” posting thrilled selfies when she met the stunned youngsters on some random red carpet and declaring, “There is no way I was ever cool enough to be on it.”Margot Robbie in “Barbie” Warner Bros. Pictures via APIt’s not too extreme to say that in the UK, Australia has replaced California in the popular imagination as the sunshine dream state, with migration from us to them at its highest in a decade. Ms. Robbie embodies the Aussie ideal of sexiness and common sense which depressed Brits find so alluring in our Commonwealth cousins. Yes, she’s not free of cliches; she has her own liquor brand, as every other celebrity seems to. But unlike the likes of Ms. Lopez and Ms. Lively, you just know she’ll be drinking that gin as well as touting it.Because, unlike some of the poor creatures slaving away in the salt mines of Hollywood, Margot Robbie really does seem to find it fun being a film star.Julie Burchill is the author of “Girls on Film.”

In This Divisive Movie Star Era, Is Margot Robbie So Popular Because She’s Actually Enjoying Herself?

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