Throughout her already prolific career, producer/actor Margot Robbie has proven herself to have a taste that’s as discerning as it is eclectic. Most actors attempt to demonstrate their ability to take on as large of a range of projects as possible, yet the demands of the business and marketing sides of the film industry usually see them typecast in some form, usually in a genre if not a specific type of role. This is why Robbie’s career is worth pointing out for how diverse it is; she’s been able to find a niche for herself that has allowed her to easily move between action films, dramas, period pieces like “Mary Queen Of Scots,” comedies, genre flicks, and prestige pics, all while growing her A-list status and not being relegated to either an awards-bait character actor or a paycheck-bait comic book movie star. As a producer, she’s demonstrated a steady dedication to supporting either emerging or established female talent behind the camera. In short: she’s a real hip lady.
It’s likely she got her personal sense of cool from her family, friends, and so on, but it’s also fairly telling that the film she’s gone on record calling her favorite movie of all time happens to be one of the hippest movies ever made. During a roundtable interview with MTV News on the eve of the release of Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood,” Robbie was ecstatic when interviewer Josh Horowitz brought up 1993’s “True Romance,” initially to pitch Brad Pitt’s character Floyd as the greatest stoner character of all time. Robbie upped the ante, explaining that not only is “True Romance” her favorite but that she “walked down the aisle to the ‘True Romance’ music” when she was married. Fun fact: that music, by Hans Zimmer, is a winking adaptation of a Carl Orff piece, previously and famously used in a movie that was a huge influence on “True Romance,” Terrence Malick’s “Badlands.” Though naysayers could claim that Robbie was merely brown-nosing Tarantino by picking a movie he wrote, one only needs to look at Robbie’s career for proof that she has a genuine love for the exploits of Clarence and Alabama.
Margot Robbie’s films demonstrate her love for ‘True Romance’
In Tarantino’s filmography, “True Romance” is one of the two scripts he sold off (the other being “Natural Born Killers”) while trying to get his directing career off the ground, which he eventually did one year before “True Romance” was released with “Reservoir Dogs.” While a Tarantino-directed “True Romance” would’ve been a fun time, it would’ve been a different movie than the one we got, which was directed by the late, great Tony Scott. It’s the peanut-butter-and-jelly combination of Tarantino’s film dork edginess and Scott’s slick, experimental humanism that gives “True Romance” its special verve, making it unique within the careers of both filmmakers. While Scott and Tarantino’s influence on ’90s cinema led to a lot of imitators, “True Romance” stands proud as a movie that’s equal parts grounded, over-the-top, satiric, and, yes, romantic.
The core subgenre of “True Romance” is the “lovers on the run” movie, films that involve at least two romantically involved characters who for whatever reason run afoul of the law. These films (“Badlands,” “Thelma & Louise,” and “A Life Less Ordinary,” to give some examples) contrast the affection of the protagonists with the dirty deeds they must do in the name of love. This same tonal contrast between sweet and sour can be seen in many of Margot Robbie’s films, certainly in the trifecta of “Suicide Squad,” “The Suicide Squad,” and “Birds of Prey,” and her penchant for portraying people just this side of the law in movies like “Focus,” “I, Tonya,” and the underseen “Dreamland” demonstrates her interest in finding the hearts of gold within outwardly disreputable criminals. There are echoes of Patricia Arquette’s Alabama from “True Romance” within many of Robbie’s characters, women who unabashedly own their sex appeal as much as their strength and independence: Naomi in “The Wolf of Wall Street,” Sharon Tate in “…In Hollywood,” Nellie in “Babylon,” and yes, even “Barbie.”
Robbie’s body of work is a testament to just how well she understands the appeal of her favorite film of all time, as she takes to heart the multi-faceted aspects seen in “True Romance.” In other words, she’s not simply a fan of the snappy dialogue, slick cinematography, fashion, etc. She has an eye on the big picture, a quality that’s allowed her to continue to be a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood. To sum it up by paraphrasing “True Romance” itself: she’s so cool.
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