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"I
'm enjoying every moment of this time in
my life,” says Margot Robbie. "I've been
working pretty much non-stop and it's
been so much fun."
Her current work is what she's "spent years
preparing for", and even as a dramatic child she had
a loyal home audience. "I was always performing
for my mum," she laughs. "I spent a lot of time
watching videos and memorising scenes that I
would re-enact in the kitchen while my mum was
wondering what I was going on about. But that
was my early training and I just kept at it."
Practice makes perfect, as Robbie also
discovered when filming her latest blockbuster,
Focus
. The blonde actress plays Jess Barrett, an
ambitious young pickpocket who receives on-the-
job training from Will Smith's Nicky Spurgeon, a
conman planning a big heist. Not one to slack off
during work hours, Robbie took it upon herself to
learn the tricks of the trade. "I got to be pretty good
at stealing a watch while someone's wearing it,"
she grins. "I don't know if that's necessarily a talent
you should be proud of, but every film teaches you
something!"
Robbie's work has taken her far from home,
but she's found an Aussie community in the City
of Angels. "I've met quite a few people from
back home in Los Angeles and it's been good for
me to be able to talk to other actors about their
experiences of coming to LA and establishing
themselves," she says. The actress also admits, "I
prefer living in London, although I've spent a lot of
time working in the US," – she was based in the
English capital filming the upcoming
Tarzan
.
While life today is "a very different kind of life
from what I was used to in Australia," if she's ever
between jobs, Robbie knows there's one trans-
continental company with whom she's already
got experience – anyone fancy a Subway? "I was a
sandwich artist!" she reveals, and she even starred
With Leonardo DiCaprio
and director Martin
Scorsese on the set of
The Wolf of Wall Street
With Will Smith
in
Focus
Margot Robbie is currently taking Hollywood by storm. With
the talent, the looks – her legs alone were scene-stealers in
The Wolf of Wall Street
– and the drive to climb the ladder
of LaLaLand, the Aussie native moved from the Gold Coast
to Melbourne, aged 17 and determined to act professionally.
Before long she was securing small roles in feature films before
the call up came from
Neighbours
, the starting block for many a local
starlet. Since leaving behind her soap alter ego Donna Freedman, the
past few years have seen Robbie frolic nude with Leonardo DiCaprio,
work her wings as a stewardess in
Pan Am,
and hit the big screen with
Will Smith in the upcoming comedy-thriller FOCUS.
Margot Robbie will next been seen as
the last woman on Earth in the post-
apocalypse drama
Z for Zachariah
, based
on the 1974 young adult novel by Robert
C. O'Brien. Farm girl Anne Burden believes
she is alone, sheltered from the nuclear
armageddon by an idyllic mountain valley.
But she soon has company, when a pair of
male strangers (Chris Pine and Chiwetel
Ejiofor) emerge from the forest.
in a commercial for the company when acting took
over. "I was really good at Chicken Teriyaki and
Meatball subs. I take great pride in my sub skills and
whenever I go to Subway and watch someone else
prepare my sandwich, I'm always tempted to go
behind the counter and show people how to do it
properly!" she laughs.
When it comes to acting, however, Robbie turns
to Cate Blanchett for a role model. "She's done such
excellent work and been in so many great films
while being able to enjoy a very quiet private life,”
she explains. “You never read anything about her in
the tabloids and I would like to follow that approach
and keep my personal life as private as possible."
Blanchett is indeed an admirable role model – but
what are her sandwich skills like?
Focus
is in cinemas on March 5
I got to be pretty
good at stealing
a watch while
someone's wearing it
13
CINEMA
interview