Revisiting Margot Robbie’s 2 Oscar races ahead of ‘Barbie’

Brian Rowe
·4 min read
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The summer’s most anticipated comedy is Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. After her two box office misfires of 2022 — “Amsterdam” and “Babylon” — Robbie is on the cusp of her first critical darling and giant financial hit in a long while. Two of her acclaimed performances brought her Academy Award nominations in the previous decade, so with “Barbie” opening in theaters, let’s look back at Robbie’s two Oscar races.

Her first Oscar nomination came in 2018 in the Best Actress category for her performance as Tonya Harding in “I, Tonya.” Written by Steven Rogers and directed by Craig Gillespie, the film tells the true-life story of Harding’s rise in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships and how everything came crashing down. Robbie had been received Oscar buzz for at least one of her movies before this — Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street,” her breakthrough — but her ambitious turn as Harding was the one that finally got academy members to take notice. She received Golden Globe, Critics Choice and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for her performance, and at the Oscars in Best Actress she was up against Sally Hawkins for “The Shape of Water,” Saoirse Ronan for “Lady Bird,” Meryl Streep for “The Post” and Frances McDormand for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.”

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The success of “I, Tonya” that awards season didn’t come for Robbie, unfortunately, but instead for Allison Janney in the Best Supporting Actress category. Janney swept the season, taking the Supporting Actress prize at Golden Globes, Critics Choice, SAG, BAFTA, Film Independent Spirit and Oscars. But unlike Janney, Robbie struggled winning anything for her performance, only taking Best Actress in a Comedy at Critics Choice and a few critics prizes for Best Actress, like from Florida and San Francisco. The category at the Oscars proved too competitive, with McDormand, like Janney, sweeping the season in the Best Actress category for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” and not letting anyone else stop her momentum. The best chance Robbie had at a win early in the season was at the Golden Globes, where she was in the Comedy or Musical category, but Ronan prevailed there for “Lady Bird.”

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A year later, Robbie came close to a second Oscar bid in the Best Supporting Actress category for her turn in the historical drama “Mary Queen of Scots” after she was recognized with noms from both SAG and BAFTA. She ended up missing the final cut at the Academy Awards, but she didn’t have to wait long for more awards attention because in 2019 she appeared in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” in the summer and in “Bombshell” in the winter.

She received great acclaim for playing Sharon Tate in Quentin Tarantino’s stylish epic about 1960s Hollywood, Brad Pitt earning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Robbie got a Best Supporting Actress BAFTA citation for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” but the major award shows in the United States nominated Robbie instead for her excellent supporting performance in “Bombshell.” Written by Charles Randolph and directed by Jay Roach, the film tells of a group of women at Fox News who take on Roger Ailes and the toxic environment at the company.

“Bombshell” received nominations all over the place during the 2020 awards season, especially for Robbie in Best Supporting Actress and for Charlize Theron in Best Actress. Like with “I, Tonya,” Robbie was nominated at all the major ceremonies — Golden Globes, Critics Choice, SAG, BAFTA and Oscars. This time she competed with herself in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” at BAFTA and with Nicole Kidman from “Bombshell” at SAG, unfortunately not taking home any awards at either.

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In the Best Supporting Actress category at the Oscars, Robbie was up against Kathy Bates for “Richard Jewell,” Scarlett Johansson for “Jojo Rabbit,” Florence Pugh for “Little Women” and Laura Dern for “Marriage Story.” Again, the nomination for Robbie was the win itself because she was never going to claim this trophy, Dern sweeping the season in the category, not missing anywhere. Robbie did win a handful of critics prizes for her turn in “Bombshell,” including St. Louis, which recognized both of her 2019 performances. “Bombshell,” like “I, Tonya” got into three Oscar categories — Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and this time, instead of Film Editing for “I, Tonya,” “Bombshell” was nominated for and won Best Makeup and Hairstyling.

Robbie showed up at a few places during the 2023 awards season for her ambitious performance in Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon,” receiving Best Actress nominations at Golden Globes and Critics Choice, and getting into Best Ensemble at SAG. But the film crashed and burned with many critics and especially at the box office, and so her third Oscar nomination didn’t arrive for “Babylon.” Buzz around her performance in this summer’s “Barbie” is glowing, so is it possible Robbie gets recognized by the academy for her latest movie? Only time will tell.

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