This December will mark 10 years since Margot Robbie broke through on the big screen in Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street” and quickly became a household name. The Aussie actress appeared about two months earlier in Richard Curtis’ romance drama “About Time”, alongside Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy and Domhnall Gleeson (who Robbie would co-star with in 2017’s “Goodbye Christopher Robin”).
But “Wolf” saw Robbie in the showcase role of Naomi, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio. Some thought she should’ve been up for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar that year. She would soon earn some trips to the Academy Awards. But first — a duo of pictures with Will Smith. 2015’s “Focus” only made $54 million domestically, but it was No. 1 on opening weekend. And then came 2016’s DC flick “Suicide Squad”, in which Robbie electrified the screen as Harley Quinn, easily stealing the thunder from Jared Leto’s Joker.
In between her two Will Smith collaborations were roles in “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot”, “The Legend of Tarzan” and a memorable cameo in Adam McKay’s “The Big Short”. In 2017, Robbie starred in the dynamite “I, Tonya” as figure skater Tonya Harding, with a performance that would earn her an Oscar nomination and Critics Choice Best Actress in a Comedy win.
Robbie lent her voice to the character of Flopsy, and served as the narrator, for 2018’s family hit “Peter Rabbit” (and 2021 sequel “The Runaway”). She was a SAG and BAFTA nominee for her work as Queen Elizabeth I in 2018’s “Mary, Queen of Scots”. And Robbie had a banner 2019 as Sharon Tate in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and Kayla in the FOX News drama “Bombshell”. The latter would take Robbie back to the Oscars. Both performances earned her BAFTA Best Supporting Actress nominations.
2020 kicked-off with Robbie reprising Harley Quinn for “Birds of Prey”. So-so indie drama “Dreamland” was released on VOD and in select theaters later in the year, around the time when Oscar winner “Promising Young Woman” (which Robbie produced) opened. Robbie returned to the DC Universe once more for 2021’s “The Suicide Squad”, joined Christian Bale and John David Washington for David O. Russell’s 2022 “Amsterdam” (a career low point) and headlined Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon”, re-teaming with “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” co-star Brad Pitt.
Most recently Robbie briefly appeared in Wes Anderson’s star-studded “Asteroid City”. And now she’s about to take on one of her most high-profile roles to date in Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie”. WB is counting on the rom-com to be a blockbuster (the studio needs it following the disastrous results of “The Flash”). It should be a hit, concluding a decade of A-list stardom for Margot Robbie.