The “unbelievably difficult” job that was vital to the success of Margot Robbie
Consistently displaying nuance and versatility throughout her bright and remarkable career, Margot Robbie has established herself as one of the genuine stars of modern Hollywood. With phenomenal performances for some of contemporary cinema’s greatest filmmakers, Robbie has proven her quality time and time again.
The actor has delivered a chaotic and unhinged vision of Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad, a graceful effort as Tonya Harding in I, Tonya and wowed audiences all across the world with her widely celebrated performances in the likes of The Wolf of Wall Street and Barbie, which have further cemented her position as one western cinema’s most prominent stars.
Long before Robbie enjoyed the successes and wonders of working with the likes of Martin Scorsese and Greta Gerwig, though, she had made her first foray into the acting industry with an appearance in the iconic Australian soap drama Neighbours, first as a guest character, who was eventually promoted to the main cast.
“I learnt a lot on Neighbours,” Robbie once told GQ. “It irritates me so much the way people talk about soaps because it is far more difficult working on a soap than it is on a big studio film. On a feature film, you’re very aware that there is a lot of money invested in you and what you look like and how you’re perceived, and it’s daunting.”
She added: “But on a soap, there’s so much pressure to be technically perfect. It’s unbelievably difficult, and you have to be incredibly skilled to do that job, and people don’t really acknowledge that enough.” While Neighbours is overshadowed by Robbie’s film work, it’s an effort that clearly played its part in her overall career.
Robbie then went on to discuss how she got her big break on Neighbours and how she had to leave behind her former career as a fast food worker. I was working at Subway in Melbourne, I was a ‘sandwich artist’, that’s the preferred title,” the actor explained. “It’s my favourite ever job, it was so much fun and I was really good at it.”
She signed off: “I remember the day I had to go in and say I’m going to have to quit because I’ve got a job on Neighbours – they were like, ‘Piss off!’ because I hadn’t told them anything about it. Six months later, Subway paid me to do a commercial for them, and I got paid like 20 times the amount I ever earned there.”
Check out Margot Robbie in Neighbours below to see how she got her big break in the industry.
