While it’s hard to gauge the effectiveness of a performance based just on a trailer, it’s clear that Margot Robbie is gaining some buzz for her role in the upcoming Damien Chazelle film, “Babylon.” An awards season push is a no-brainer, as Robbie is already twice nominated for Oscars. And according to the actress, her performance in “Babylon” is the hardest she’s worked in her career.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal Magazine, Margot Robbie talked about her preparation for “Babylon” and why the film was such a demanding experience. For those who haven’t seen the aforementioned trailer, Robbie plays Nellie LaRoy, a Hollywood starlet in the 1920s who is experiencing a change in the film industry as it transitions from silent features to “talkies.” In the WSJ Magazine profile, Chazelle explained that he wanted to depict a Hollywood that is a “no-holds-barred, zero rules climate with a lot of extreme behavior.” And specifically, he wanted Robbie’s performance to be “fully animalistic.”
“I needed someone…utterly fearless—I had a sense that she would attack it,” he added. “There’s this sort of ravenous physical bravado to her. On the other hand, she’s also the most technically skilled thespian you could hope to work with as a director.”
To help get to that “fully animalistic” place, Robbie actually did look at animals as inspiration. For her role in “Babylon,” she looked at an octopus and a honey badger. Robbie said the octopus helped her be “both fluid and transformative,” while the honey badger allowed her character to be “ready for a fight—constantly. They’re just so thick-skinned.”
“I’ve never worked that hard in my life,” she added about her role in the film. “[I was] shattered by the end of that job.”
Will that hard work pay off? Audiences will find out when “Babylon” arrives in theaters on December 23.