The two musicians Margot Robbie would love to play in a biopic: “I’m not musically gifted”
From finding her feet in the soap opera Neighbours to grabbing headlines in The Wolf of Wall Street to starring in and producing a billion-dollar, Oscar-nominated super-hit, Margot Robbie has ridden the waves of cinematic success with aplomb. Those performances have been paired with other great characters – Jane Porter in The Legend of Tarzan, the title character in Barbie, and Harley Quinn in the DCEU – to build an impressive career that, hopefully, has many decades left to go.
Where Robbie seems to excel the most is playing real people. Her performance as controversial figure skater Tonya Harding in I, Tonya earned her a ‘Best Actress’ nomination at the Oscars. Other great Robbie interpretations of historical figures include Queen Elizabeth I in Mary, Queen of Scots, Sharon Tate in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and Kayla Pospisil, a composite character in the Me Too drama Bombshell.
Bringing actual people to the screen is a skill and not one that every actor possesses. Robbie has proven herself to be very capable at this kind of job, which has earned her the right to pick and choose which biopic she wants to tackle next. According to one interview, she has two famous musicians on her mind.
Speaking with NME, she named two iconic female singers as ones she would like to immortalise on film. “Stevie Nicks would be fun,” she revealed. “I think everyone has been trying to do a Janis Joplin [movie] for a long time too.” The star, who was speaking to promote Babylon, then squashed any chances of getting cast in those roles by saying, “I’m not musically gifted; I don’t think I should do any of this.”
Stevie Nicks, of course, is best known for her time in the classic line-up of Fleetwood Mac, alongside John and Christine McVie, Mick Fleetwood, and her on-again, off-again boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham. She began her solo career prior to her departure from the group in 1990, releasing the gigantic album Bella Donna, which featured the singles ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around’, ‘Leather and Lace’, and ‘Edge of Seventeen’. Her time in Fleetwood Mac is rife with material for a biopic; during their most successful period, the members were at each other’s throats on a regular basis. Nicks herself has been upfront about her frustrations while recording with the group, so she would surely be on board with a tell-all movie.
As for Janis Joplin, the legendary singer-songwriter who started out in the San Francisco band Big Brother and the Holding Company. Her blockbuster performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, which was captured on film by the great documentary maker DA Pennebaker, catapulted her to mainstream attention. Unfortunately, her promising career was curtailed in 1970 when she suffered a fatal heroin overdose, joining the infamous 27 Club and leaving everyone to wonder what might have happened had she lived a full life.
Fleetwood Mac have been the subject of many documentaries over the years, but never a full-blown biopic. At time of writing, Divergent star Shailene Woodley has been cast to play Joplin in an upcoming movie, however, as Robbie said, many failed attempts have been made to tell the superstar’s story in the past.
Will the Australian get to fulfil her dreams? Will she invest in some singing lessons to overcome her lack of musical talent? Only time will tell.
