Margot Robbie: ‘I didn’t know the definition of sexual harassment’ in the workplace until it made a ‘bomb’

Margot Robbie said she didn’t know the definition of sexual harassment in the workplace before making “Bombshell,” the 2019 Jay Roach drama about women at Fox News who exposed CEO Roger Ailes for his misconduct.

The actress opened up about her career and her experience in the film industry during a BAFTA Life in Pictures talk to celebrate her career. At thirty-two years old, she was the youngest subject in the series to date. Robbie is in London as part of the press tour for Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon,” which hits cinemas at the end of the year.

When discussing her “Bombshell” character Kayla Pospisil, the only fictional woman in the film alongside the likes of Megyn Kelly and Gretchen Carlson, Robbie said the role was easy to pull off due to the difficult subject matter. “The second I could stop being Kayla, I did,” she said. “It was definitely something I wanted to capitalize on in the end.”

Robbie has explained that she signed on to the film to make up for her blind spots when it comes to sexual harassment in the workplace. She revealed, “I realized that – as someone with a firm position in the industry, a financially self-sufficient builder – I didn’t know the definition of sexual harassment, and that was shocking.”

She said she was “horrified” by her lack of knowledge, and that “Bombshell” taught her that sexual harassment “thrives in the gray area” in the respective industries. She added, “Roger Ailes or Harvey Weinstein, they take advantage of the area.” “The situation is not black and white.”

When reflecting on the fact that she’s only worked with one female director on a feature film through her 20th project on the big screen — with director Josie Rourke’s “Mary Queen Of Scots” — Robbie said she doesn’t see a difference between men and women behind the camera and “can’t put it down.” the basis of sex.”

“I would say Josie has a special vision as a woman, which she does, but then in something like ‘Bombshell’ with a male director, [Jay Roach] Robbie said. “It doesn’t work out better because he’s a man, but every director has a completely different personality and process.”

Several other male directors were discussed during Robbie’s Life In Pictures talk, including Martin Scorsese, whom the actress worked with at just 22 to get her first big-screen credit in 2013’s The Wolf Of Wall Street as Naomi Lapaglia. Robbie revealed that she only got one part of directing in six months with Scorsese.

“We talked all the time,” Robbie said of the director, “he would tell stories about mafia members and old movie stars, but he didn’t actually offer direction.” “The only bit of direction I got was in a scene where he throws water, and I remember him once saying, ‘Can you be on your toes more? And I didn’t know if he meant figuratively or figuratively or literally, like a spatial thing…and that was off direction.”

Margot Robbie also discussed the letter she wrote to Quentin Tarantino immediately upon seeing her performance again in I, Tonya, Craig Gillespie’s 2017 biopic of disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding (which the actress admitted she didn’t know was a real person when she read text first). In the letter, Robbie asked the “Pulp Fiction” filmmaker to cast her in one of his films – not knowing that he would later consider her – and only her – for the role of Sharon Tate in “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.”

She said “I, Tonya” was her first movie where she thought, “Okay, I’m a good actress now. I’m ready to connect with my idols”, and working with Tarantino was “high on the list of things” she had put off doing because “it didn’t feel right.” Enough yet.”

Robbie recently worked with “La La Land” filmmaker Chazelle on his explosive picture of Golden Age Hollywood, “Babylon.” She praised the director’s “breadth of knowledge” and called the photography “thrilling and exciting”, comparing Chazelle’s process in some parts to the freedom Scorsese gives his artists, while being “specific, technical and nuanced” in other moments. The Australian actress plays Nellie LaRue, an aspiring silent-era artist who struggles to adapt. Robbie replaced Emma Stone who was set to star in the film until her exit in 2020. The film was shot for four months, from July to October 2021, after being delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Next year, Robbie plays Barbie in the first live-action picture for a Mattel property, which was released via Warner Bros. Pictures. under the Robbie LuckyChap Productions banner, along with Mattel Films and Heyday Films. The actress and producer said she felt “the only way the movie was worth doing was to get a Greta Gerwig version,” referring to the film’s director and co-writer, along with Noah Baumbach. Barbie will be released theatrically through Warner Bros. on July 21, 2023.