“I was obsessed with it”: Margot Robbie names her favourite sci-fi movie
Barely a decade into her feature film career, Margot Robbie has already secured her place as one of the biggest names of Hollywood. Somewhere between Neighbours and Barbie, she won over global audiences as well as some of the most well-respected directors in the business, working with the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese and Greta Gerwig. She’s received Academy Award nominations, produced her own projects, and blown box offices out of the water.
Since venturing into the world of acting on Australia’s most beloved soap opera, Robbie has slotted into casts and projects of all shapes and sizes. She delved into a world of riches and corruption alongside Leonardo DiCaprio for The Wolf of Wall Street, found her place in the superhero world through Suicide Squad, and even led a sports biopic with I, Tonya, but her recent filmography is lacking in science-fiction stories.
While Robbie showed some interest in the genre in her early career, starring opposite Chris Pine and Chiwetel Eijofor in Z for Zachariah and making an appearance in the time-travelling Richard Curtis romance About Time, she has since strayed away from tales of time and space. This doesn’t reflect her own interest in watching the genre, however.
In fact, one of Robbie’s favourite films is Luc Besson’s French sci-fi flick The Fifth Element. The 1997 movie follows a taxi driver as he becomes embroiled in a quest to save the planet, starring Bruce Willis and Gary Oldman. With crazy costuming, over-the-top visuals, and character names like Zorg and Fog, The Fifth Element is a sillier take on the sci-fi genre, but a fun one nonetheless.
While more stony-faced sci-fi enthusiasts might disregard The Fifth Element in favour of more serious genre classics like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner, a young Robbie found herself falling in love with the ridiculous film. “The Fifth Element was always my favourite,” she divulged during an appearance on Five Things with Lynn Hirschberg.
Robbie was particularly enthusiastic about one element of the film: Milla Jovovich’s character, Leeloo. With bright orange hair and suspenders to match, Leeloo is a so-called supreme being set to become the fifth element. Jovovich’s hypnotic performance in the role entranced a young Robbie, who told BAFTA that Leeloo was the first character she wanted to be.
“I was just obsessed with The Fifth Element and obsessed with that character in particular,” she remembered. Robbie has yet to add a sci-fi flick quite as over-the-top and extravagant to her own filmography. She’s had her fair share of extravagant costume and production design, between The Wolf of Wall Street, Mary Queen of Scots and Barbie, but nothing quite as ridiculous as Besson’s film.
Perhaps the closest she’s come to Leeloo is her role as Harley Quinn, a similarly superhuman role with brightly coloured hair and an outfit that has become a Halloween costume go-to, though she’s a little wilder than the Fifth Element character. Robbie is yet to fulfil her dreams of becoming Leeloo, but we’d love to see her take on the character if there is ever a remake of the strange sci-fi.
Watch the trailer for The Fifth Element, Margot Robbie’s favourite sci-fi movie, below.
