Margot Robbie Used 2 Animals to Inspire Her ‘Babylon’ Character

Margot Robbie has played a number of interesting characters since she exploded on the scene with The Wolf of Wall Street. Rather than simply accepting the roles that Hollywood offered her, she took agency over her career by co-founding her production company, LuckyChap Entertainment. Doing this allowed the actor to shine in movies like I, Tonya. However, filming her upcoming movie, Babylon seems to have been a career-best for Robbie.

What is Margot Robbie’s upcoming film, ‘Babylon’ about?

In Babylon, Robbie portrays Nellie LaRoy. Nellie is an aspiring actor in 1920s Hollywood. Though she’s initially an outsider, she gains attention after delivering a standout performance in her first role. The film also explores the chaos, intensity, and depravity of Hollywood in that era. While speaking with Vanity Fair, Robbie admitted that the experience of filming Babylon was second to none.

“What you see onscreen is the chaos of making a movie and how f***** it is, but also how it’s just the greatest thing ever,” Robbie said of Babylon. “And, literally, filming it was the exact same thing. S*** was so unhinged and so fun and amazing and just absurd. It was definitely the best experience of my life.”

Nellie LaRoy is based on a real-life silent film actor

While filming Babylon was fun, it also required a ton of hard work. Robbie personally invested a lot of time in energy into creating her character, Nellie. Though silent film actor, Clara Bow, served as a big source of inspiration for Nellie, Robbie also used her imagination to help flush out her character.

Robbie used animals to inspire her character’s physicality

One of the things that Robbie did to prepare for Babylon was work with a movement coach. Together, they found animals who would serve as the inspiration for Nellie’s physicality. Eventually, they settled on a honey badger and an octopus. The honey badger represents Nellie’s aggressive and ruthless side. Meanwhile, the octopus represents the character’s fluidity.

 “They’re liquid, they’re playful,” Robbie shared about octopuses. “Highly intelligent, great survivors, transformative. Can morph into anything.” But the Aussie did more than animal work when preparing for her role in Babylon. She also meticulously crafted a character map. Apparently, the map is so detailed-oriented that Robbie feels it would make people sure that she was a “crazy person.”

Why the ‘Babylon’ star spent a ton of time thinking about Nellie’s childhood

Another thing that Robbie did to flush out her character was think about Nellie’s formative years. “Whenever I’m trying to make a character, I have to figure out their childhood,” the Suicide Squad actor revealed. “I can justify anything they do later in life if I just figure that out.” Since Robbie used Bow as an inspiration for her character, she made Nellie’s upbringing a difficult one.

“She had probably the most horrific childhood I can imagine for anyone,” Robbie shared of Bow’s childhood. “You can justify anything Nellie does and says in this movie if you imagine that she experienced something like that as a kid.” Clearly, Robbie spent a lot of time developing her character. Fans can see the Aussie’s hard work in action when Babylon hits theaters on December 23.