Margot Robbie ‘wildly miscast’ in new role

She won praise earlier this year for her dramatic transformation into Queen Elizabeth, but critics haven’t been so kind about her on-screen portrayal.

Margot Robbie might have won praise for her dramatic transformation in Mary, Queen of Scots but critics haven’t been so kind about her on-screen portrayal.

Robbie wore heavy makeup and a red wig to play Queen Elizabeth in the historical epic opposite Saoirse Ronan as Queen Mary.

Unfortunately for Robbie, while critics have heaped praise on Ronan’s version of the doomed Scottish queen, they have labelled the Australian actor a “glaring miscast”.

The New York Post gave the movie a paltry one-and-a-half star rating, labelling it a “royal chore”.

Margot Robbie plays Queen Elizabeth. Picture: Parisa Tag/Focus Features via AP

Getting “real-life bombshell” Robbie to play Elizabeth sees the actor “wildly miscast”, The Post’s Johnny Oleksinski argued.

The BBC agreed, claiming the movie had bizarrely cast “someone as gorgeous as Robbie to play a character who is miserably jealous of someone else’s beauty”.

“Even when Elizabeth has the pox, and Robbie has Rice Krispies stuck all over the face, she is still, unmistakably, a movie star,” the BBC’s Nicholas Barber wrote.

The Guardian labelled Robbie’s portrayal of Elizabeth “the film’s biggest stumble” and a “glaring miscast”.

Robbie wears heavy makeup and a wig for the role

Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie attend the World Premiere of Mary Queen of Scots in London. Picture; Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images

“Robbie, a skilled actor capable of illuminating lesser films such as Focus and Suicide Squad, never really convinces with the accent or the appearance and one can almost feel her focusing on both so much that she forgets to add much else to the role,” wrote The Guardian’s Benjamin Lee.

Other reviews weren’t as harsh, with The Boston Globe claiming that while Robbie “seems miscast at first” she “deepens into the part” as the movie wears on.

Rolling Stone praised both Robbie and Ronan’s performances, describing them as holding viewers “in thrall”.

Australian audiences will have a while to make their minds up, with Mary, Queen of Scots hitting cinemas on January 17.