Margot Robbie reveals clever trick for Mary Queen of Scots movie’s epic finale

She claimed to have the body of a weak and feeble woman but the heart and stomach of a king – “and a king of England too”.

But that rather sexist quotation does not tell the whole story of the physical appearance of Queen Elizabeth I.

So the latest star to take on the role really had to dress down with a pockmarked face, heavy white make-up and sparse curly red hair.

“It wasn’t really about going for the shock factor or ‘How can we look as crazy as possible?,” says Margot Robbie.

“The look was really born out of the fact that Elizabeth I had smallpox really badly, which left 60% of people permanently disfigured and her face badly pockmarked. So we see her in pale makeup and with a receding hairline.”

Playing the Virgin Queen in the Oscar-tipped Mary Queen of Scots, out next month, was daunting for the Australian – and not simply due to the stark look.

She was afraid of taking on the role as she was stepping into such big shoes, as Good Queen Bess has previously been played by Judi Dench, Bette Davis and Margot’s great favourite and fellow Aussie, Cate Blanchett.

“I was terrified about playing a character that has been played by some of the greatest actresses in history, including Cate, who is my absolute acting idol,” she says.

Starting out

If fear was really in the 28-year-old’s DNA she would still be back in Oz starring in soap Neighbours, where she got her big break.

Margot says: “I basically had only three options back then. Either I would have waited until the producers at some point got rid of my character or I would have played the role for ever and led a comfortable life in Australia.

“The third option was to quit and see if I could make it in the US, which offered more chances than Australia. I could have failed but I was willing to risk it.”

It paid off big-time as she cracked Hollywood, starring in films like The Wolf of Wall Street, ice skating drama I, Tonya and Suicide Squad – where she stole the screen as Harley Quinn.

Maybe she got her guts from her mum Sarie, who raised her and her three brothers and sisters single-handedly on a farm in Queensland. Margot says: “We didn’t make life easy for her. We were always fighting and mum had to be a strong woman to hold things together.”

Yet she says she had a perfect childhood, adding: “My siblings and I went boar hunting and surfing and I grew up learning more about agriculture and animal husbandry than you could imagine. It was not the kind of upbringing you could have expected would lead anyone into acting.

“I’m the kind of person who if you tell me something is impossible, I’m going to do everything in my power to prove you wrong and make it happen. Even when the idea of a Gold Coast girl going to Hollywood seemed a wild dream, that made me want to succeed a thousand times more.”

Margot Robbie’s rise to the top

Despite her Neighbours success and move to the US, her family still thought acting was little more than a hobby to do until she got a proper job.

She laughs: “It took them a few years to realise that being an actress is a profession, and only when they came to visit in New York and I showed them the giant poster of The Wolf of Wall Street in Times Square that they became convinced I was never going to go to uni.”

Far from resting on her laurels, Margot soon set up production company Lucky Chap with English assistant director husband Tom Ackerley, who she married in December 2016.

Together, they produced I, Tonya – about controversial US figure skater Tonya Harding and an attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan. Made for £8.7million, it earned £42million and won Margot a Best Actress Oscar nomination.

She says: “We wound up making I, Tonya instead of going on our honeymoon. But we both believed in this project and we were committed to pursuing our dream.

“It was a struggle to get financing but it was always a sense we were in it together and we worked well getting the film made. But as soon as the film was over we made up for it!”

After the first success of working with Tom she is regularly asked if they will collaborate again soon – on a baby. Margot says: “My standard answer is getting married doesn’t necessarily mean having a baby right after the ceremony.”

The star is renowned for throwing herself heart and soul into a role. When auditioning for The Wolf of Wall Street, she smacked Leonardo DiCaprio in the face. And filming I, Tonya she became so overwrought in one scene she stormed off set, screaming at co-star Sebastian Stan. “I forgot I was acting and nothing makes me more exhilarated than when I genuinely forget where I am,” she remembers.

But in real life, Margot insists she is actually bad with conflict, trying to “avoid it at all costs”. Instead, she tries to diffuse tensions before they can escalate.

She says she does not worry about conflicts when working with Tom.

“I’ve been told by many in showbiz that it’s usually a bad idea to work with loved ones and friends,” she says. “But I think it’s a huge advantage for me to be able to work with Tom.

“We love each other and know each other so well that we enjoy being able to develop and work on projects together, and overcome all the challenges that you face. Several of my longtime friends also work with me at our company and one of my best friends is my set assistant and so we get to spend a lot of time together.

“It’s nice to have a close friend around when working, especially on long days.”

Mary Queen of Scots

Margot stars in Mary Queen of Scots with fellow ex-Neighbour Guy Pearce as well as David Tennant and Saoirse Ronan, who has the title role. The film is based on John Guy’s 2004 biography of Mary Stuart and explores the power struggle when a newly widowed Mary returned to Scotland, hoping to reclaim her throne from Elizabeth.

The film builds to a big confrontation between the two – which many historians believe did not actually happen. To make the scene even more dramatic, director Josie Rourke kept Margot and Saoirse apart during shooting.

“We had seen each other as ourselves in rehearsal but never in costume as our characters,” she says. “They kept us on separate sides of the set and it wasn’t until the moment we literally confront each other for the first time that we saw each other. It felt like a punch in the gut and it just floored me, I fell apart.

“It was my last day of shooting and I was obsessing about Mary the entire film and there she was, looking young and radiant and she was holding her hand out and knowing that I wasn’t going to take her hand.

“It just killed me… it was an incredibly strange and emotional experience.”

• Mary Queen of Scots is in cinemas from January 18.

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