The “absolute favourite” movie Margot Robbie needs everyone to see
It’s unlikely that you’ve been able to go the past five years without watching a film starring Margot Robbie. The Australian-born actor has been everywhere lately, most famously playing the Mattel doll who enters the real world in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie.
The film went beyond what we consider successful and entered record-breaking territory, with Gerwig becoming the first female filmmaker to helm a movie grossing over $1billion at the box office. Robbie’s role as the titular character firmly cemented her legacy in Hollywood as one of the most profitable leading stars, and with her other cinematic endeavour as a producer, it seems like she has quite the monopoly over the industry (quite literally – she is reportedly working on a movie based on the board game).
Robbie has such star power that she can seemingly land any job she sets her heart on, whether that be leading a woefully unfaithful adaptation of Wuthering Heights or playing the iconic Harley Quinn in the Suicide Squad movies and spin-offs. Unfortunately, she has appeared in her fair share of box office bombs throughout the years, most recently failing to impress critics with her role in the fantasy romance A Big Bold Beautiful Journey.
Apart from her small supporting role in About Time, Robbie really hasn’t dipped her toes into the world of romantic movies all that much, and clearly, when she has, as A Big Bold Beautiful Journey suggests, she fails to pick them wisely. Yet, one of the actor’s “absolute favourite films” is actually a classic romantic comedy, and you’d think that maybe she’d want to appear in something similar herself.
In an interview with Vogue, she revealed her love for the iconic screwball rom-com The Philadelphia Story, directed by George Cukor. You can hardly blame her – it’s a terrific entry into the genre which stands as a cornerstone of the romantic comedy format, propelled by some of the biggest stars of the Old Hollywood era.
“The Philadelphia Story is just charming, and everyone is so gorgeous and witty,“ she explained, “Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart all in the same film!”
After Hepburn entered a period in her career where people began to call her “box-office poison,” she bounced back by starring in the play of the same name, which Philip Barry wrote just for her. As a gift, Howard Hughes bought the actor the rights to the play so that it could be transformed into a film, and of course, she reprised her role as Tracy Samantha Lord, specifically requesting that Cukor be in charge of direction.
Cast alongside Grant, with whom she’d appeared in several other screwballs, like Bringing Up Baby and Holiday, also directed by Cukor, the movie turned out to be a glittering success. It proved to be one of Hepburn’s most successful films, while Stewart nabbed a ‘Best Actor’ Oscar for his performance as Mike.
It endures as one of the greatest romantic movies ever made, with Hepburn playing a woman who finds herself caught between several love interests, and considering how much Robbie loves the film, perhaps one day she’ll sign herself up for an equally clever romantic flick.
