The 'I, Tonya' actress reveals Honey Badger and octopus are some of her inspirations to portray debauched actress in Damien Chazelle-directed racy movie.
- Jan 5, 2023
AceShowbiz - Margot Robbie was inspired by a honey badger to tap into the wildness of her "Babylon" character. "The Wolf of Wall Street" actress, 32, claimed the small mammal's fierce traits matched those of her debauched silent film star character Nellie LaRoy in the film about the sex and drug-crazed Hollywood of the Roaring '20s.
"They have really thick skin. (Nellie) fights anything and anyone," she said on "The Kelly Clarkson Show".
Margot also used a movement coach and the characteristics of an octopus to help develop the part for "Babylon", which features an orgy scene and amounts of nudity that her co-star Brad Pitt, 59, has said left him stunned.
And she said she drew on a pit bull when she played ultra-ambitious skater Tonya Harding in "I, Tonya" - saying about the dog breed, "They are very misunderstood."
Margot previously told how she feared filmmakers wouldn't get away with an orgy scene in "Babylon". She made the admission while discussing the film during a chat with Carey Mulligan as part of Variety's "Actors on Actors" series.
Carey, 37, said its opening scene was an "enormously debauched" and "crazy, wild party" with "lots of people wearing very little or nothing." Margot agreed, "It's pretty much a party-slash-orgy. It kind of turns into an orgy."
"When I read the script, I was like, 'This is like 'La Dolce Vita' and 'Wolf of Wall Street' had a baby - and I love it! But I was like, 'Are we allowed to show that? Are we allowed to show that? There were so many scenes where I was like, a) I have no idea how I'm going to do that, and b) are we going to get away with this?' "
When Carey said she had watched the film with her mum, Margot joked, "Everyone should see Babylon with their parents. It won't be awkward at all."
Written and directed by Damien Chazelle, 37, "Babylon" is described as a "tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess" which "traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood."
