‘A very different place now’: Margot Robbie on Hollywood, sexism and Babylon

She’s one of Australia’s biggest stars but Margot Robbie’s latest role explores the darker side of fame.

She is one of Australia’s brightest Hollywood exports but Margot Robbie’s latest role tackles the darker side of fame.

Yes, Robbie is a huge actress but in real life, she is nothing like her latest character – in Babylon, she plays Nellie LaRoy, a chaotic, New Jersey-raised drug-addicted 1920s starlet trying to make it in Hollywood. LaRoy wanted it all, Robbie has it already.

But the 32-year-old admits the reality of Hollywood isn’t always what it seems.

“There are so many things where it differs from what you ever imagined,” Robbie said.

And being a modern day actor is a contrast to the era portrayed in Babylon – where sexism and racism was widespread.

“I think we’re very fortunate to exist in a very different place now,” Robbie muses.

Wearing a strapless Christopher Esber dress, Margot Robbie has been in Sydney this week for her latest movie, Babylon. Picture: MEDIA-MODE.COM

“Obviously, definitely far from perfect but back then, it was just … pretty horrible,” Robbie added, speaking to Stellar at Sydney hotspot Shell House.

“On the flip side, there were tonnes of female directors back then. In some ways, we’ve taken steps back and other ways, taken steps forward.

“A female director was totally common place at that time. Once the movies became a commodity, that’s when the dudes came in and pushed the women out. But we’re coming back around again.”

Of course, Robbie isn’t just an actor, she is building a fully-fledged Hollywood empire in her own right. Her production company LuckyChap Entertainment backed Harley Quinn film Birds of Prey, I, Tonya and the upcoming Barbie movie, directed by Greta Gerwig and in which Robbie stars as the blonde bombshell Mattel icon – and is an executive producer.

Margot Robbie in Versace at the Australian premiere of Babylon, held at the State Theatre. Picture: Getty Images for Paramount Pictures

The Australian actor plays troubled Hollywood starlet Nellie LaRoy in Babylon. Picture: MATRIXPICTURES.COM.AU

“When you’re making a movie, you’re working with hundreds of people and it’s like going on summer camp – and you all become so close,” Robbie said.

“And you’re all in it together and there’s something really, I don’t known fulfilling and good for your soul about having a shared objective with a group of strangers.”

She continues: “You all want the same thing and you’re all working together to achieve a common goal, and that’s what making a movie is – it’s hundreds of people doing what they do, really well, and doing it together and working together to make something special”.

Robbie has been in Sydney this week to attend the Australian premiere of the Golden Globe-nominated film. And if there was ever a way to tell she is in her element back home, it’s through her hair.

Tousled, understated, and in long beachy waves, Robbie shed her usually-polished red carpet tresses for something more … her.

Diego Calva and Margot Robbie in Sydney this week for Babylon. Picture: Getty Images for Paramount Pictures

Margot Robbie stars in Babylon, out in Australia on Thursday. Picture: Getty Images

Margot Robbie as Nellie LaRoy and Diego Calva (Manny Torres) in Babylon. Picture: Paramount

Bablyon explores the darker side to Hollywood in the 1920s. Picture: Paramount

Even in Versace couture, Robbie continued her relaxed ’do – and she did the same at our interview the following day, where she sported a vanilla-coloured silk suit with bell-shaped cuffs, teamed with gold jewellery.

“She’s a very physically, emotionally draining kind of character to play,” Robbie said, of LaRoy – who was based on real-life actresses of the silent film era including Clara Bow and Jeanne Eagles.

Robbie’s secret to maintaining her stamina? A sugar hit. “Just on a never-ending sugar high, really, eating Skittles.

“To be honest, it wasn’t that hard to keep energy levels up on a film set like Babylon because you could feed off everyone else’s energy, it wasn’t like doing – what I imagine – a very, like, blue screen or CGI-heavy film would be, where you have not that much to go off.

“Doing a party scene, you can’t help feed off the energy of the room.”

She is referring to a particularly memorable scene in Babylon, featuring sex and coke-fuelled debauchery – and on set, Oscar-winning director Damien Chazelle (of La La Land fame) created a wild environment with no windows or sense of time. “You don’t become a star – you either are, or you ain’t,” Nellie says on-screen.

“(Chazelle) transports everyone in that scene to what you’re doing,” Robbie said, of shooting.

“You had music playing all the time and the general chaos of a film set is pretty energising in itself,” she said, adding: “When we were getting really tired, they’d put on Firestarter (by The Prodigy) and we’d be like, ‘ah! We’ve got to go again.’”

Robbie and her co-star Calva became close friends, with Mexican actor Calva moving into the home Robbie shares with her husband, Tom Ackerley, during the Babylon shoot.

“We were in the middle of shooting and I was getting like lonely, we were in that tricky spot and it was really helpful,” Calva said, seated next to Robbie afront an art deco-inspired bar.

Robbie chimes in: “And it was helpful for me because Diego and I pretty much co-parented my pitbull … he loves my dog, my dog loves him”.

“So to like share the load it was really nice to have a roommate to help me take care of Belle.

“I’m a little bit jealous because she definitely loves Diego more than me.”

Babylon is out now. Read more from Stellar here.

Originally published as ‘A very different place now’: Margot Robbie on Hollywood, sexism and Babylon