Ever since making her breakthrough in The Wolf of Wall Street, Margot Robbie’s career has consistently ascended into the skies. A far cry from her beginnings on Neighbours, Robbie has become one of Hollywood’s biggest names after performing for some of the most notable directors out there.
Comfortable in a wide range of genres, Robbie’s acting credits spread far and wide. From a turn as Sharon Tate in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to an effort as figure skater Tonya Hardin in I, Tonya, via performances as Harley Quinn in a number of DC movies, Robbie’s credentials are more than assured.
However, back in the early part of her career, Robbie faced up to the task of performing alongside some of the biggest actors in the film industry. A baptism of fire in her The Wolf of Wall Street would have certainly helped her to adapt to the big time, but the Australian actor still had to come to terms with being somewhat starstruck by her new co-stars.
Robbie followed up on her breakthrough effort in Martin Scorsese’s biographical comedy with a turn in the 2015 Craig Zobel apocalyptic science fiction movie Z for Zachariah, in which she starred alongside Chris Pine and Chiwetel Ejiofor, yet another two actors with huge star appeal.
The film was based on Robert C. O’Brien’s 1974 posthumously published book of the same name. It focuses on an emotional love triangle between three people known as the last survivors on Earth following a cataclysmic disaster that wipes out most of human civilisation.
Even despite recently acting alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill on The Wolf of Wall Street, Robbie was impressed and yet struck by the prowess of Chiwetel Ejiofor, noting in an interview with The Guardian, “It was right in the midst of the 12 Years a Slave press, so it was a little intimating. And he’s a force to be reckoned with on set.”
A master actor with an Academy Award nomination to his name for 12 Years a Slave, Ejiofor boasts one hell of a filmography to his name. Early into his career, the London-born actor played James Covey in Stephen Spielberg’s Amistad before making further efforts in the likes of Children of Men, The Martian and Dirty Pretty Things.
Robbie continued to express her admiration for Ejiofor and compare him to one of her most famous co-stars. “He’s a really powerful actor, really like Leo [DiCaprio],” she admitted. “They both have a screen presence; they’ve very lovely, approachable people, but when you’re doing a scene with them if you don’t keep up with them, they’ll just roll right over you.”
The Australian actor also revealed that she had been auditioning for a role in Z for Zachariah before she’d actually taken on her effort in The Wolf of Wall Street but found that because she hadn’t garnered enough star power, it was difficult to land the job. “Because I hadn’t done a large film, I didn’t have enough international value to my name to get the film funded,” Robbie explained. “Ironically, you have to do the bigger films in order to make a small film. When I first tried to do Z for Zachariah, I couldn’t attach enough value to my name.”
