Margot Robbie: 'I'd like to be a strong woman'
She has scored some of the most coveted and bold recent female roles in Hollywood — from the Wolf of Wall Street's feisty female lead to the unhinged Suicide Squad supervillan.
But Australian superstar Margot Robbie says she sometimes struggles to feel like the strong, confident woman she so often portrays on-camera.
"I would like to be a strong woman, I don't always feel it for sure," Margot told Sunday Night reporter Denham Hitchcock.
"[I get it] from my mum. She is, yeah, she is amazing."
"She is a very emotionally strong."
Even in her latest role as Jane in the blockbuster remake of Tarzan she doesn't portray the classic damsel in distress.
"I really like the take on her and it is definitely meant to be a modern re-telling of a well-known story."
The 26-year-old is refreshingly real and laid-back.
After a series of films in which her body was put in extreme focus, she says she enjoyed teasing co-star Alexander Skarsgård with food during filming of Tarzan.
"Role reversal, it is so nice," she laughed.
"I could eat anything and he was suffering and at first I was like 'Now you know how actresses feel,' and then I did just feel really bad for him.
"I went, 'Sorry, I will go and eat my muffin somewhere else because you are about to cry'."
Her rapid rise all started in suburban Queensland, where her mate suggested she audition for a local film.
"My best friend Christian Radford, we have been best friends since we were born and he told me about this little indie film that was filming on the Gold Coast.
"He was going to be in it and he was like, 'You should do it and audition because they need a chick character'."
She got the part in the horror flick I.C.U. and at just 17 Margot packed her bags and followed the well-worn path to Ramsay street.
Hollywood soon followed, where she landed her big break alongside Leonardo Di Caprio.
"I didn't want to play the same role for too long," she said of leaving Neighbours.
"Because I could already tell within myself that I was starting to play myself a little bit."
Tarzan is in theatres July 7, watch the full trailer below
Her energy caught the eye of the producers; they even praised her when she hit Leonardo in the face.
"I got a bit caught up in the moment and it wasn't scripted but I was screaming at him and then I hit him in the face instead of just saying a line."
"As soon as I did that I was swiftly taken out of the scene and thought, 'Oh my gosh, what have you just done?'
"But they were like, "That is great, you should do that again"."
It would be a dream come true for any budding actress, but Margot had a different goal in mind.
"When I first started working and I started making money, I was speaking with a business manager and they said, "You should start investing your money, what do you want to do with your money?" And first thing was I wanted to pay off my mum's mortgage.
"Every couple of months I would check in and be like, 'Do we have enough yet?' and he would be like, 'No, not yet'… And then eventually he was like, 'You can afford to pay your mum's mortgage now."
She kept the plan a secret from her mother — who had raised Margot and her three siblings alone — until she had the money together.
"I feel very lucky that I actually had the opportunity to do that"
"It was definitely one of the best moments of my life"
