Margot Robbie is savouring her chance to learn from the best, in this case her ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ co-star Leonardo DiCaprio.
The former ‘Neighbours’ actress turned Hollywood A-lister confesses she still worries too much what people think of her, something she’s trying to put behind her…
“Leo does whatever it takes,” says Margot, speaking to HuffPostUK in London on the day of the film’s premiere.
“If he needs to sit with his head in his hands for 20 minutes between takes, he will do it. Whatever he needs to do to get into the zone, he will do it.
Margot Robbie, female lead in 'Wolf of Wall Street', is learning lessons from the likes of Leonardo
“I feel obliged to sit around the table and make a cup of tea, and chat to people, as if I’m being the hostess with guests at my house. It’s still more important to me to be liked.
“I worry so much about what people think that I forget that, it’s not the be all. No one really cares what I’m doing, they’ve got their own jobs. If I need to pace backwards and forwards 60 times in a row, then I should do that. I used to be so scared that I would look silly, to worry I looked like a pretentious actor, but actually that’s your job.
“Maybe growing up too, you start caring what other people think a little bit less.”
‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ – a flash-by three hours of American excess, tells the true life story of Jordan Belfort, corrupt Wall Street stockbroker, who spent his millions – on drugs, drink, prostitutes and pleasure-seeking - as quickly as he made them.
Margot Robbie explains the cast became immune to nudity, and all the other crazy stuff, by the end of filming
For Margot, a down-to-earth Aussie, this meant shedding her clothes for the role along with everyone else…
“It was intimidating for the couple of months leading up to it, but when it came down to it, it became just part of the job. Everyone was doing crazy things all the time. There was a lot of nudity from every cast member, every extra. Everyone became immune to it after the first week.”
More shocking to Margot is something else that she thinks has been missed in all the chat about the glamorously decadent lifestyle on display…
“It hasn’t stuck out for literally anyone who has interviewed me, was how much money they were making, and how little time it took to make it. You hear figures like ‘£20million in a couple of minutes’ and you think of what that kind of money can do, so little can change someone’s life somewhere.
'The most shocking thing isn't the nudity or the drugs,' says Margot, of Jordan Belfort's jaw-dropping lifestyle
“What is ironic is that people are jumping on the nudity, the drugs, and I’m thinking, What does that say about society that not one person is shocked by the main theme of the film, the financial mess, and the absolute corruption, and no one seems bothered or shocked by that?”
Margot Robbie’s star has flown far and fast since she left the Neighbours set a short three years ago, via a role in the doomed Pan-Am TV series, and the less interesting glamour-puss role in Richard Curtis’s ‘About Time’.
The downside? “Lack of sleep, and wanting to go home to Australia for a bit longer.”
And, surely, something she doesn’t mention but I do… being thrust into the media spotlight courtesy of some magazine photographs raising eyebrows at her partying with her next co-star Will Smith…
She bats this away like a pro.
“Fortunately I’ve never been any good at social media. Technology has never come naturally to me. I don’t have Instagram. I don’t know how to look up blogs. So, I inadvertently miss a lot of what goes up online, and I think that’s a blessing in disguise. Ignorance is bliss in this case.”
'The Wolf of Wall Street' is in UK cinemas from Friday 17 January 2014. Watch our infographic video on the life of excess lived by Belfort and his cohorts below.... Margot's right - the figures are truly mind-boggling!