Acting certainly seems to be a glamorous profession; there's all the red carpets you can walk down after being sewn into your haute couture gown, and you're also privy to a small, round-the-clock army of makeup and hair stylists to ensure that you always look picture-perfect. Additionally, you're surrounded by some of the most beautiful faces in the world, and all the wealth that comes with having won the genetic lottery
and being talented to boot. However, it must be difficult to snap between different characters, especially when you're playing a role that requires you to tap into troubled emotional psyches.
That's exactly the experience that
Margot Robbie had on the set of biographical biopoic I, Tonya. In a recent interview with Grazia magazine the actress revealed that playing the role took a serious toll on her mental health.
The
27-year-old Wolf of Wall Street star disclosed that during points in filming, the line between reality and the role she was playing, that of the now-disgraced figure skater, Tonya Harding, became blurred.
At one point, Robbie genuinely believed she was Harding, and completely forgot about the cameras. She even punched her on-screen husband in the head, believing that a scripted argument was actually happening.
"I had lost my mind. I genuinely thought we were these people and we were off the set, running down the street screaming at each other and the cameras are running after us. I think I was screaming something about needing to go to hospital because my hand was broken," she told the publication. Robbie continued:
''It wasn't, but I was so caught up in the moment. And Sebastian was like, 'Margot, where are you going?' He went to pick me up because I was continuing to tear down off set and I turned and punched him in the head."
While the film crew became so concerned by Margot Robbie's behaviour that they even stopped the cameras at one point, Margot claims that she actually found the whole thing rather "exhilarating".
"A few times I've genuinely thought I wasn't on set and that I was that character in that time and in that place. To truly forget there's a camera in your face is really hard. When it does happen, it's really exhilarating. I don't know if it's because you're so tired when you're filming you're almost delusional," she added.
The Australian actress also had to contend with neck problems during filming. After losing all feeling in her arm, doctors eventually deduced that it was a result of a neck injury sustained on set. ''I don't think [the numb arm] was connected to the skating," Robbie said. ''[I had the scans] to make sure we weren't doing any real damage. I herniated a disc in my neck.''
I, Tonya chronicles the life and career of the two-time Olympic figure skater, Tonya Harding, documenting her connection to the attack on her Olympic rival, Nancy Kerrigan. Harding and her ex-husband now-infamously conspired to have Kerrigan's leg broken so she wouldn't be able to compete in the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer.
In other news,
Margot Robbie insisted on making a key change to this iconic Wolf of Wall Street scene...
