Margot Robbie Accidentally Got High on Painkillers Before a ‘Terrible’ Audition and Driver’s Test
Margot Robbie is one of Hollywood’s highest-paid actors, but she’s still not immune to stage fright. The Once Upon a Time in Hollywood star revealed that despite all of her major achievements, she still gets nervous about auditioning for roles. She recalled one hilarious instance where her audition phobia was even worse after she accidentally got high on painkillers.
Margot Robbie says auditions ‘terrify’ her
Robbie admitted to regularly having a “crisis of faith” about the audition process.
“Auditions terrify me,” the Australian actor told The Sun. “I get nervous doing the early reads, even when I know that I’ve already got the part. I still find that nerve-racking. I find them really scary.”
Robbie continued: “In fact, in the week leading up to the first day of playing any character — every character I’ve ever played — I have a huge crisis of faith and convince myself that I’m a terrible actor, and I’m not actually any good at this job, and that I don’t know the character, I’ll never be able to pull it off.”
Fortunately, Robbie has found a support system in her husband, producer Tom Ackerley. “My husband’s like, ‘OK, you know you say this every single time.’ And I say, ‘It’s different this time. This time I really can’t do it!’” Robbie told The Sun.
The couple co-founded LuckyChap Entertainment in 2014, which has gone on to produce several Oscar-nominated movies in addition to the critically acclaimed TV series Dollface.
Margot Robbie once accidentally got high on painkillers before an audition
Even though auditioning may be one of the more daunting parts of Robbie’s job as an actor, she’s still able to laugh about some failed audition stories. She recalled one in particular, where she accidentally got high on painkillers before a big read.
Robbie told The Sun: “In America, obviously, the name of medications is different to what they are in Australia. I had this really small day surgery thing the day before a big audition that I really wanted the role for, and I was in so much pain. I was at my friend’s house and he’d just had root canal treatment.”
She then said her friend offered her two pills of his painkiller medication. However, Robbie was confused by the dosage and mistakenly took both pills at once instead of saving one for later like her friend meant for her to do.
“I woke up and I was getting ready for this audition, didn’t get time to eat breakfast so, on an empty stomach, I had two,” she recounted. “I’m driving and halfway there I was suddenly like, ‘Oh my God, what a lovely day it is!’ … I was off my head. It was a terrible audition, I’m sure!”
Thankfully, the Suicide Squad actor had a friend at Sony, where her audition was, who gave her some food and let her lie down after she realized she’d accidentally gotten high.
As if the whole incident weren’t unfortunate enough, Robbie also had an American driver’s license test scheduled for later that day. “I was going for my driving test right afterwards to get my American license and I was like, ‘I am not OK, I cannot do a driver’s test’,” she said.
Margot Robbie’s critical recognition and Oscar nods
Robbie has been acting in various film and TV projects since 2008, when she first appeared on the Australian soap opera Neighbours. Her breakout role was in the Martin Scorsese-directed comedy The Wolf of Wall Street, where she starred alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill.
Since then, Robbie has starred in several other big blockbusters. They include 2016’s Suicide Squad, 2020’s Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of Harley Quinn), and 2021’s The Suicide Squad, in which she played the charming antihero Harley Quinn.
She received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in 2018 for her work in the highly praised biopic I, Tonya. And she landed another Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 2019 for her role in Bombshell.
Robbie’s next big project is the Greta Gerwig-directed Barbie film, which will arrive in theaters in July 2023. She plays the titular character alongside Ryan Gosling, who plays Ken.
