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Margot Robbie took to Twitter to prepare for her role as a conservative news producer and aspiring broadcast journalist for Fox News in “Bombshell.”
“Understanding her upbringing and her point of view on politics in the world, that really took me a minute,” Robbie says on today’s episode of “The Big Ticket,” Variety and iHeart’s movie podcast.
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She added, “Twitter was extremely helpful. I would follow these young, conservative girls who are very vocal with their beliefs and their political points of view. And that was fascinating because they’re my age. In some ways, we’d have a lot in common. And then, in other ways I was like, ‘We are living on totally different planets.’”
While Charlize Theron stars in the Jay Roach-directed movie as Megyn Kelly and Nicole Kidman portrays Gretchen Carlson, Robbie plays Kayla, a composite character who represents all the women who were victims of sexual harassment and misconduct by late Fox News boss Roger Ailes. Robbie’s work could land her a second Oscar nomination after garnering her first nom for last year’s “I, Tonya.”
“I was pretty rattled by the time I got to the end of [Charles Randolph’s] script, to be honest,” Robbie says. “And I knew long before I finished the script that I wanted to do it and be a part of it, just because I thought it was important to tell, and be a part of, and support in any way that I can. I hadn’t, for once, thought of the character first. I thought of the content and the messaging before kind of aligning myself with the character. That came next, was starting to understand Kayla.”
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| Margot Robbie photographed exclusively for Variety‘s “The Big Ticket” podcast. Dan Doperalski for Variety |
And then there’s Theron’s “insane” physical and vocal transformation to become Kelly. “The voice changed everything. It’s like she almost sat lower in her body with that voice. It altered everything and…you just lose her,” Robbie says, adding, “I really saw her disappear and she did … And she was producing at the same time. It’s not like she didn’t have one sole focus. She was being pulled in a million different directions and just handled it like a boss. She’s so impressive.”
Robbie is currently shooting writer-director James Gunn’s “Suicide Squad” sequel in Atlanta, reprising her role as Harley Quinn. When I mention that her “Suicide Squad” co-star Joel Kinnaman raved about how funny he thinks the movie is going to be when he was a guest on “The Big Ticket” last month, Robbie says, “He’s right… You’re going to be laughing a lot. It’s going to be good is all I can say for now. It’s going to be very, very good.”
But the next time fans will see Robbie as Harley is in her standalone movie “Birds of Prey.”
“The story in ‘Birds of Prey’ is told from her point of view, so you have an insight into Harley’s world in a way that you didn’t in the first ‘Suicide Squad’ film, nor that you’ll have in the next ‘Suicide Squad’ film,” Robbie says. “It’s a little bonkers. It reflects her personality. It’s heightened. It’s poppy, it’s fun, it’s violent, it’s crazy. It’s absurd. It’s kooky. It’s hilarious. It’s a little heartbreaking.”
You can listen to the entire interview with Robbie below. You can also find “The Big Ticket” at iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.
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