Margot Robbie

Posted on by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors

 

  1. Amy Adams, Man of Steel, 2011.
  2. Rachael Taylor, Charlie’s Angels, TV, 2011.  The (rapidly axed) re-boots’ three new Angels were Annie Ilonzeh, Minka Kelly and… the choice of two Aussies: Queensland’s Robbie v Tasmanian Taylor. Robbie had begun on the top down-under soap, Neighbours, like almost everyone else (Russell Crowe, Chris Hemsworth, Heath Ledger, Guy Pearce, Naomi Watts…  but not Taylor) and lost Abby in her first LAudition. (“The most intimidating process ever. And you have to sign on to do seven years before you even know [if you’ve got the part].”) But ABC liked her style and had her flying high as Laura in in 14 episodes of Pan Am, 2011-2012.
  3. Lily James, Cinderella, 2013.     Disney’s ideal was Harry Potter‘s Emma Watson. But she fled allowing director Kenneth Branagh to start a new  pumpkin list –  Robbie (surely too much for one prince!), Bella Heathcote, Imogen Poots, Saoirse Ronan, Alicia Vikander, Emma Watson, Gabrielle Wilde. (Amanda Seyfried’s previous role obviously counted against her at Disney – Linda Lovelace!). And the slipper went to… Downton Abbey’s bright young Lady Rose and Natasha Rostova in the BBC’s 2016 War and Peace. And Juliet opposite her Prince Charming, Richard Madden, as Romeo
  4. Elizabeth Olsen, Godzilla, 2013.      The Monroe-esque Robbie, Emilia Clarke, Hilary Duff, Jennifer Lawrence, Aly Michalka, Imogen Poots and Emmy Rossum were up for the (somewhat improved) second Hollywood reboot set for releases in the creature’s 60th birthday year of 2014.  Producer Jerry Weintraub once said :  “When I think of Margot Robbie, a single word comes to mind.  Audrey Hepburn.”  Strange. Nobody else says that.
  5. Emma Stone, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), 2013.      Passed on being Michael Keaton’s daughter Sam on to Emilia Clarke, Lily James, Blake Lively or Stone. A movie that bitterly annoyed as many millions as it pleased… even more so after it inexplicably won the Best Picture Oscar on February 22, 2015.
  6. Dakota Johnson, Fifty Shades of Grey, 2013.     Social networks were full of kinky ideas for the porn novel’s BDSM heroine, Anastasia Steele – from Jennifer Lawrence to Emma Watson. Few suggestions led to talks, auditions or tests. Robbie, Emily Browning, Lucy Hale, Felicity Jones, Elisabeth Olsen, Alicia Vikander, London model Suki Waterhouse, Shailene Woodley were all lucky to escape were also lucky to escape the turgid, totally un-erotic enterprise. Only 14 minutes and 17 seconds of sex, no orgasms – and pubes added digitally to actors’ genital patches!
  7. Kate Mara, The Fantastic Four, 2014.       Marvel wanted the Four back and offered Fox an extension on its Daredevil II plans. No way! In the mix for the third Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman were Robbie, Sasha Pieterse, Saoirse Ronan, Emmy Rossum, Samira Wiley. Fox chose Mara over director Josh Trank’s favourite, Allison Williams. He then bullied Mara for being the suits’ choice. Would love to have seen him try that on with Robbie!!! Film flopped. (Only ever made to save the rights). Hollywood Reporter critic Todd McCarthy called it “a 100-minute trailer for a movie that never happens.”Marvel icon Stan Lee saw it coming and refused his usual seal-of-approval cameo.
  8. Emilia Clarke, Terminator: Genisys, 2014.      “Come with me if you want to live… ”  Picking up the line from the guys in the Terminator franchise, the Game of Thrones find beat off Robbie, Emily Blunt and future Oscar-winner Brie Larson to Linda Hamilton’s iconic role of Sarah Connor. Ironically, Emilia’s GOT co-star, Lena Headey, had been Sarah in the 2008 series, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Small world.
  9. Dakota Johnson, Black Mass, 2014.  Lindsey Cyr was the doting lover of the infamous Whitey Bulger, the South Boston crime boss with a US Senator brother – and FBI help to avoid jail and tackle the Italian Mafia muscling in on his territory.  Also up for Lindsey in the damn near black-comedy were Robbie, Anne Hathaway, Scarlett Johansson, Felicity Jones, Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively – and the too busy Jennifer Lawrence.
  10. Dakota Johnson, A Bigger Splash, 2015.    More Jacques Deray than David Hockney – making the French original, La piscine, seem  better than it ever was!  Robbie accepted Penelope (Jane Birkin in 1968) until getting a jungle cry to be Alexander Skarsgård’s Jane in   The Legend of Tarzan. Dakota got the better film – plus an immediate second movie,  Italian maestro Luca Guadagnino’s re-make of Dario Argento’s horror classic, Suspiria, 2016.

  11. Sophie Turner, X-Men: Apocalypse, 2015.  “A big monster of a movie,” declared producer-director Bryan Singer. “A kinda conclusion of six X-Men films, yet a potential rebirth of younger, newer characters.” To succeed Famke Janssen’s Jean Grey, a mutant scared of her super-abilities, Singer mused over Lily Collins,Elle Fanning, Chloë Grace Mortez, Sasha Pieterse, Saoirse Ronan, Hallee Steinfeld and Hollywood’s hottest newcomers:  Star Wars find Daisy Ridley and The Wolf of Wall Street’s Margot Robbie. He voted Turner, becasuse of how she handled the dark side of her Game of Thrones character, Sansa Star … and despite Sophie having blue eyes and Janssen, dark brown.  
  12. Hayley Bennett, The Girl on the Train, 20l6.        Never any question in producer Marc Platt’s mind about who would be The Girl – Emily Blunt, from his Into The Woods. But sexy Megan only became Bennett when first Kate Mara, then Robbie were busy elsewhere. They were lucky to miss the messy Hitchcock wannabe. Never came close.
  13. Scarlett Johansson, Ghost In The Shell, 2017.      Negotiations with Robbie fell apart (well, she was testing for Suicide Squad) and Johansson took over the headache of the year. Because her role of Major Mira Killian (ex-Motoko Kusanagi) was, inevitably, Japanese in the Masamune Shirow manga, this lead to tumultuous on-line protests about Hollywood whitewashing. Again. “I believe having Scarlett play Motoko was the best possible casting for this movie,” said the original’s director Mamoru Oshii said. Before his take flopped.
  14. Lady Gaga, House of Gucci, 2021.  Ridley Scott’s Succession, Italian Style,  had been on many shelves over the years. In one nearly done deal, Maurizio Gucci and his wife, Patrizia Reggiani, were set for Leonardo DiCaprio and Angelina Jolie. Other potentials Patrizias (who orderwd his murder) were Anne Hathaway, Natalie Portman, Margot Robbie, plus two of Scott’s previous leading ladies: Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz. But Gaga had the winning improvisation when making the sign of the cross, saying: “Father, Son and  House of  Gucci.”

 Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls:  13