Movie star Margot Robbie vows to make a Gold Coast blockbuster after AACTA Trailblazer win
Movie industry powerhouse Margot Robbie has made a promise to her beloved home city Gold Coast while reflecting on her journey to stardom during her latest visit.
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Homegrown movie industry A-lister Margot Robbie is vowng to film a blockbuster on her beloved Gold Coast.
The golden girl of Hollywood made the promise after revealing it was “mind-boggling” to be bestowed a prestigious film industry trailblazer award where she was born at the Australian Academy of Cinema & Television Arts (AACTA) awards on the Gold Coast on Saturday.
Robbie - still basking in the success of starring in and producing billion-dollar box office hit Barbie - was asked if she planned to make a movie at home on the Gold Coast one day - and she replied: “Absolutely!
“You know what, there’s huge water tanks at Warner Bros Studios at Movie World. Trust me I keep trying, it’s going to happen.”
Earlier Robbie spoke movingly on the Gold Coast’s Home of the Arts stage at the Down Under version of the Oscars moments after fellow Aussie film industry luminary Cate Blanchett presented her with the AACTA Trailblazer award.
The self-confessed “Gold Coast girl” who got her start on screen in Aussie soap Neighbours said it had been a “very long and exciting road from the Gold Coast to Ramsay Street to The Wolf of Wall Street and beyond”.
She called it “mind-boggling” to be presented the award by Blanchett, who she heralded as her favourite actor growing up and who would remain so in future: “It’s almost as mindbloggling as it is to be receiving this award here on this stage, where 20 years ago I was performing a vaguely inappropriate dance routine in our inter-school Eisteddfod. So this is a very full circle moment for me.
“Yes I am a Gold Coast girl. I was born 15 minutes from here. I filmed my very first film 15 minutes from here. My second film was also about 15 minutes from here.
“And just about everything that ever happened to me in my life up until the age of 17 happened within about 15 minutes of here,” she said, to cheers and laughter, adding: “Traffic wasn’t as bad back then.
“But there isn’t an image of the Gold Coast that doesn’t remind me of a time or place or someone so to be here on the Gold Coast this evening knowing all of my wildest dreams came true is unbelievably special to me and I cannot thank you enough, the AACTAs, for giving me this moment,” she told the packed auditorium.
“I did have big, big dreams as a kid, and big dreams can carry pretty far.
“But the love and support of your family and friends will carry you much further. I want to thank my family and friends who are with me here tonight - I always had my head in the clouds but you guys kept my feet on the ground,” she said looking up to her family which included Gold Coast-based mother Sarie Kessler and partner Tom Ackerley.
Robbie, who has made her name starring in blockbusters including Focus with Will Smith, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood with Brad Pitt, I, Tonya and Suicide Squad as Harley Quinn, also won the AACTA Audience Choice awards for Favourite Film (Barbie) and Favourite Actress.
“Tonight I’m being given the trailblazer award but the biggest reward for me is having the privilege to blaze a trail for others to traverse - that is why I absolutely love producing,” she said referencing her LuckyChap Entertainment production company.
“I’ve learnt that being a good producer is seeing the potential in other people and bringing unlikely people or companies together and getting them to trust each other and take risks and ensuring they have the resources to make magic.
“Our production company LuckyChap is turning 10 this year and between Barbie and Saltburn it is fair to say we’ve just had the most surreal year of our lives. Lastly I would like to thank the Australian film community - the stories that come out of here are wild and bold, and fierce and unflinching and profoundly human - there is a sensibility and fearlessness in your work that is inspiring to me.
“As an actor and producer I want to contribute to the extraordinary narratives and be good enough to stand alongside you all. This award makes me feel I”m on my way to doing that so thank you very much.”
Asked later if she felt how much the Gold Coast and Australia was proud of her, she said local media the Gold Coast Bulletin was a constant source of updates on local sentiment: “Because all my family and friends are back here, I get updated constantly if I’m in the Gold Coast Bully - someone takes a picture, they send it to me. I’m pretty much getting constant updates. It’s so nice when it is so loving, supportive and positive. So many family friends (say), ‘We’re so proud, the Gold Coast is proud of you, Australia is proud of you’ - then they’ll send me a picture and I’ll read a headline that says something similar and it’s so touching.”
Asked what was next, Robbie said “back to the office on Monday” with her LuckyChap Entertainment production house.
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