Margot Robbie Is 'Going to Win an Academy Award' for Babylon , Raves Costar Eric Roberts

Tommy McArdle
·3 min read
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LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 10: Eric Roberts attends the world premiere of Netflix's "Day Shift" at Regal LA Live on August 10, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images); NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 02: Margot Robbie attends the WSJ. Magazine 2022 Innovator Awards at Museum of Modern Art on November 02, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)

Frazer Harrison/Getty; Dia Dipasupil/Getty

Margot Robbie is reportedly Oscar worthy in Babylon.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Eric Roberts, who plays Robbie's character's father in the upcoming Damien Chazelle-directed movie, said that the 32-year-old actress "gives the most incredible performance" in Babylon as he spoke about his own prolific acting career.

Asked whether he actually watches his own movies, 66-year-old Roberts — brother to Julia Roberts and Emma Roberts' father — admitted he doesn't usually watch his own performances anymore before clarifying that he has seen Babylon.

"I will also tell you that Margot Robbie is going to win an Academy Award for that," Roberts told THR. "She gives the most incredible performance in Babylon that I have ever seen."

The actor compared Robbie's performances to the "perfect performances" of Elizabeth Taylor and Sandy Dennis' in the 1966 film Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in praising his costar, noting Robbie's acting in Babylon is "on that level."

RELATED: Margot Robbie Calls Herself a 'Masochist' When It Comes to Acting: 'I Can Always Find a Fifth Gear'

"She blew me away," Roberts added. "I couldn't believe how brilliant every minute of every day she was."

"Amsterdam" World Premiere
"Amsterdam" World Premiere

Gotham/WireImage

Last Tuesday, Robbie opened up about her preference for exhausting and difficult roles for WSJ. Magazine's cover profile for the November Innovator's Issue.

"I'm a masochist," she told the magazine.

Adding that no matter how daunting or draining a role — Tonya Harding in 2017's I, Tonya would seem to certainly count — the actress "can always find a fifth gear."

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In Babylon, Robbie stars as an aspiring actress named Nellie LaRoy in 1920s Hollywood, when the movie business was transitioning from silent films to talkies. Brad Pitt plays Jack Conrad, a movie star at a different stage of his career.

According to a recent report from Variety, Babylon has a total runtime of 3 hours and 8 minutes.

Margot Robbie plays Nellie LaRoy in Babylon
Margot Robbie plays Nellie LaRoy in Babylon

Paramount Pictures

This will be the Oscar-winning director's longest film yet: 2014's Whiplash is 106 minutes, 2016's La La Land is 128 minutes, and 2018's First Man is 141 minutes.

The film is, according to an official synopsis, "a tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess" that "traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood."

RELATED: Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt's Old Hollywood Movie Babylon Is Over 3 Hours Long: Report

Babylon's cast also includes Diego Calva, Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li, Tobey Maguire, Max Minghella, Lukas Haas, Olivia Hamilton, Rory Scovel, Katherine Waterston, Flea, Jeff Garlin, Eric Roberts, Ethan Suplee, Samara Weaving and Olivia Wilde.

Chazelle previously told Vanity Fair this film is "definitely the hardest thing I've done." He explained, "Just the logistics of it, the number of characters, the scale of the set pieces, the span of time that the movie charts — it all conspired to make it particularly challenging, but it was a challenge that was pretty exciting to take on."

Babylon is in theaters Dec. 23.