“What do we do with her?”: the TV show that rejected Margot Robbie’s star power
With three Oscar nominations to her name and the kind of star power that the average actor could only dream of possessing just a semblance of, Margot Robbie might be one of Hollywood’s biggest movie stars, but she actually started out in TV.
It’s hard to comprehend that the Barbie star, who has already become an acting icon, began her career in the Australian soap Neighbours, appearing in a whopping 355 episodes as Donna Freeman. Dedicated to the long-running series, it wasn’t until a few years later that she made the move to Hollywood, although not before appearing in the beloved British rom-com About Time in 2013.
That same year, she burst onto the big screen with a supporting role in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, her role as Naomi, a straight-talking New Yorker tired of her husband’s shit, instantly shooting her to acclaim. While critics praised her performance, many audiences with a less respectful eye, shall we say, fawned over the actor, and it wasn’t long before she made it to number one on FHM’s ‘100 Sexiest Women in the World’ list.
Clearly, the actor had both the talent and the captivating beauty needed to make a proper Hollywood star, some electric charge which enticed people to watch her, no matter the role; whether an ambitious figure skater, Harley Quinn, or even a plastic doll, Robbie certainly knows how to capitalise on her own star power.
Interestingly, it was an American TV show that could’ve altered the trajectory of her career, but the casting director admitted that Robbie’s star power just seemed too much, even though she hadn’t yet broken into the mainstream, because, believe it or not, the actor auditioned for American Horror Story, specifically season two, Asylum.
With the likes of Sarah Paulson, Jessica Lange, Evan Peters, Zachary Quinto, and Joseph Fiennes appearing in the series, it’s hard to imagine Robbie slotting in, who just seems much more suited to larger-than-life blockbusters like Barbie and Suicide Squad, and not a gritty horror series.
Casting director Eric Dawson told In The Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast, “Margot has a lot of ‘it’ factors. That’s the tough thing for casting directors who aren’t in the room with actors. Margot is probably one of my favourite auditions of all time, and it was right before she broke out.”
He continued, shedding light on Robbie’s captivating energy, which she seems to have always harnessed, “She was such a star. It was crazy, her star appeal when she walked in the room. Even though she didn’t get that role, that was one of those things as a casting director where you go: ‘This is a star, what do we do with her?’”
He didn’t specifically reveal why she wasn’t cast in the series, or which part she wanted, but Robbie made her own mark on Hollywood very shortly after when she made a splash opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street. “She was out of our realm of possibility of hiring,” Dawson said, perhaps harbouring a sneaky suspicion that she was ready to break out of her TV roots and take cinema by storm.
