The punch that became Margot Robbie’s favourite on-set moment: “I’m going to the hospital”
When it comes to acting, there is more than one way to skin a cat, and Margot Robbie certainly has a favourite approach. Some actors simply read a script and learn their lines before showing up on the day to deliver them with minimum fuss. Other actors take a much more drastic approach, doing their level best to inhabit the very soul of the character they’re playing. Sometimes, these actors even go full “method” and insist that everyone must address them by their character’s name. Robbie, though, favours a happy medium, and it once led to the Winter Soldier getting a punch upside the head.
In I, Tonya, Robbie played disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding with such commitment and skill that she landed an Oscar nomination for ‘Best Actress’. Playing her abusive husband – the bizarrely named Jeff Gilooly – in the film was Sebastian Stan, best known for playing Bucky Barnes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The two actors developed such an incendiary on-screen chemistry that Robbie got a little carried away as they shot one of the movie’s uncompromising abuse scenes.
Robbie told Vulture that director Craig Gillespie didn’t want to over-choreograph a scene in which Harding and Gilooly get into such an intense fight that the police are called to their house. She claimed he told her, “Just do whatever in the moment” and she took it to heart. Before long, she and Stan had worked themselves into such a state of fury that she admitted, “I genuinely forgot that we were on a film set and that I wasn’t Tonya and that he wasn’t Jeff.”
Robbie then explained what occurred thereafter could only be described as a brawl, with Stan slamming her hand into a door. She claimed: “I ended up storming off down the street, which was, like, the end of set, so I was just on the road in the real world.” Stan, who was also completely in the moment, pursued her, yelling, “Where are you going?” In a moment of clarity, though, he became confused at what was happening, so he shouted “Margot!” at his co-star.
Robbie claims she screamed back, “I’m going to the hospital because you broke my hand” – and then she lost herself completely. The star confessed, “I was so caught up in it, and I think I punched you in the side of the head.”
Stan confirmed to Vulture that this was what actually happened, although he didn’t indicate that he was angry or upset about it. In reality, it’s probably not good for the emotional and physical health of actors to get to such a point while playing make-believe – but it’s just as likely that he knew they had captured a rare moment of raw, unfiltered, ugly reality on film. That kind of spur-of-the-moment incident can truly enhance a film, even if it stands just as much of a chance of breaking the actors.
In the end, Robbie must have felt the ends justified the means. She was adamant, “That ended up being my favourite scene because I forgot that I was acting, and nothing makes me more exhilarated when I genuinely forget where I am.“
