Babylon's Margot Robbie, the contenders who are up (and down) in the Oscars race, and more in EW's The Awardist

Babylon's Margot Robbie on making it in Hollywood: 'You need to want it more than everyone else'

She outfoxed Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street, skated her way to infamy in I, Tonya, and will be thinking outside of the (cardboard) box in this summer's massively anticipated Barbie.

But in the interim, Margot Robbie may have just unleashed her most demanding role to date, as the voracious, fame-hungry fictional starlet Nellie LaRoy in Damien Chazelle's unhinged Hollywood history Babylon (in wide release Dec. 23). We sat down with Robbie, 32, to chat about her own acting philosophy, and why, even after working with directors like Chazelle, Martin Scorsese, Greta Gerwig, and Quentin Tarantino, she's only just getting started. By Dave Karger

Cover illustration by Sam Gilbey

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Was there a movie of Damien's that you saw and thought, This is a guy I want to work with?

MARGOT ROBBIE: Whiplash was the first thing that I saw, and I was just so astounded by the filmmaking. Anytime you hear about a director that seems so accomplished in their style and vision, and then you find out how young they are, you're like, What? It's like knowing how young Paul Thomas Anderson was when he made Boogie Nights [Anderson was 26]. You're just like, Oh, this is going to be one of the greats of our generation.

I definitely felt that when I watched Whiplash for the first time, and then he just blew our minds again with La La Land and the filmmaking in First Man. Time and time again, I feel like he just crushes it. And Babylon is, for sure, I think, his biggest swing in a lot of ways. And I think he nails it.

What were your initial conversations like?

I read the script, and it wasn't an offer to me. But suddenly the role became available, and I was like, "I need to speak to him immediately."

I was so obsessed with the idea of being Nellie. And I think that energy must have translated fortunately for me in a very Nellie-like manner, because I was borderline-manic in that conversation. I was just so excited and passionate and desperate to be a part of this that I probably convinced him that I was right for Nellie just with the sheer energy that I was throwing at him.

And then I think it was a weekend that I didn't hear for a couple of days, and by that point I started absolutely spiraling. I remember calling my team 10 times a day and being like, "Have we heard? What do I do to get this role? Should I just go over to his house and convince him?" And they were like, "No, just wait."

That's interesting, because here you are, already with two Oscar nominations, but you're feeling the need to put yourself out there.

It still happens. There are still instances where you've got to convince someone when you have the gut instinct. You can't lose the hustle.

You just used the word "manic" to describe Nellie. She's a bit of a hot mess. How did you work to capture that mania and present it in a way that didn't feel totally out of control?

Our first introduction to Nellie is at one of the biggest, craziest parties you're ever going to see, and she needs to be the person that stands out. That's how she gets a job. And that's at the start of the movie and we need to escalate from there. She knows what she has and what she doesn't have, and she plays to her strengths. She's like: Yeah, I come from nothing. I'm going to show up wearing nothing, and I'm going to get your attention and I'm going to be the shocking person that you think is uncouth, but you also can't take your eyes off.

Obviously Nellie is super ambitious. Can you relate to that side of her?

Yeah, I definitely relate to that hunger that I have to make it happen. I mean, it's something that you obviously hide and you make it seem like, Oh, this all just happened and it was a happy accident, because that's nicer for people to hear. It's kind of gross to wear that sheer ambition so obviously.

But no, I've always had that hunger. I still have that hunger. I remember, especially when I was back in Australia, that feeling of: I just have to get there. How do I get a foot in the door? How do I make it to America? How do I get a plane ticket? It was just a constant scratching at, getting to the next thing.

You just have to want it so bad. You have to love it so much and want it so bad. At the end of the day, you need to want it more than everyone else.

I've read that you auditioned 31 different accents for Nellie — are there even 31 different accents? What were some of the ones that almost made it?

We were trying to find what her sound would be, which is important to the story because once talkies come in, everyone goes, "Ugh, I hate how you sound." The obvious route would be high and nasal, but then you get into the caricature in Singin' in the Rain, which is also weirdly close to Harley Quinn for me.

So then I started looking up people like Fran Drescher and finding that raspy voice, because I watched a lot of Jersey Shore. Everyone who parties hard in their 20s, they have that husky voice. I had a husky voice when I partied too hard when I was younger. It's such a sign of someone who's living too hard and not taking care of themselves, not sleeping, drinking too much, all those things that I wanted people to just understand about Nellie without having to show it so much.

I mean, when I say 31 accents, I'm not exaggerating. I could go through my phone voice memos and show you me impersonating Joe Pesci, me doing Snooki. I ran the whole gamut and I would send them to Damien and he would say, "Okay, actually, can you mix Drita from Mob Wives with Snooki from Jersey Shore? Give me a bit of Fran there. Okay, no, I don't like that."

How do you think you'd cut it in the silent era?

I did think about that a lot. Would I have done better back then than now? I don't know. I am one of those nostalgic people that romanticizes the past. So I definitely feel like a big part of me is like, I wish I was around at that time, because the filmmaking seemed so different and wild and no rules.

I love movies from the '30s. I just love that time period where it was head-to-toe acting in all the shots. I'm quite a technical actor, and I love choreography and acting whole-body as opposed to just face.

Did working with someone like Damien make you up your level a little bit?

Damien, his pursuit for his vision — I don't want to say pursuit for perfection, because he doesn't want things to look perfect on screen. "Good enough" is never enough for Damien, and that's what I love. That's what I find inspiring with a director. A director who's like, "No, we haven't got it yet. Go again." I love that.

I love someone who's not going to settle for anything less than better than they imagined. That's why I only work with directors I believe in. I will do anything they tell me. I will do anything, go anywhere, give them absolutely everything that I have.

Was there anything that you do in Babylon that was daunting or scary?

So much. Reading this script, genuinely, it was the crying on cue, it was the rattlesnake fight and it was the hearse party where she vomits on everyone. Those were the three things where I was like, "Hmm, I don't know if I can pull this off." And particularly with the rattlesnake and the vomit thing, I was like, "I actually don't know how I'd even begin to go about that. I'm actually scared to take this role because of those scenes."

And usually when I'm scared is when I dive in head first. It has to be absurd and heightened but still real and hit you in some sort of emotional way.

Brad Pitt is someone who's been working for decades, who has reached the heights, has the Oscar, has done everything. Is working with him inspiring to you?

It makes me so happy because he's been doing this a lot longer than I have. I still walk onto every set and it's like Christmas morning every time. And I've always said to myself the day I don't walk onto a set and feel like that, then I should stop and let someone else have that role, because so many people want to be on a film set and don't get the chance.

And nothing upsets me more than working with people who don't want to be there that bad, or aren't excited to be there anymore. I'm like, Well, then, go do something else. Let someone else have a go.

Brad is so not that person. We're lucky. This is so good.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Heat Index | Contender or Pretender?

Top Gun: Maverick flies high as Empire of Light dims after a major round of precursor nominations. We take a look at some of the big swings in the race. By Joey Nolfi

Who's up:

• PICTURE: Top Gun: Maverick — Tom Cruise's commercial spectacle might be too big (and too good) for the Academy to ignore. A symbol of Hollywood excellence, it may be a film that the industry would want to tout on the biggest stage possible. In recent weeks, it scored placements among year-end-best lists from the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute; Cruise will also be honored with an individual award from the Producers Guild of America. Audiences watched, and now AMPAS is, too.
• PICTURE: Babylon — Damien Chazelle's Hollywood epic hit big with the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards, indicating steady favor across multiple groups at a key period. While journalists appeared to be divided in their initial reactions for the film, many of them still praised the film's aesthetic, indicating that the project could stack its way to a Best Picture nomination with big support from the crafts branches.
• ACTOR: Bill Nighy, Living — The veteran performer's work in Living has flown under the radar since its Sundance debut, but it's picking up steam at the right time, with Nighy earning nods from the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards, and a victory from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
• SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Dolly de Leon, Triangle of Sadness — To American audiences, Ruben Östlund's Triangle of Sadness standout might not have the same kind of name-recognition that others in this year's Supporting Actress race have, but the Filipino star's work has proved commanding as the emotional center of a film rooted in stylistic chaos. And key groups have responded: the Golden Globes and LAFCA in recent days.

Who's down?

• ACTRESS: Olivia Colman, Empire of Light — With three nominations in four years (including one victory in 2019 for The Favourite), it's clear that any prestige project Olivia Colman touches turns to Oscars gold. All of those performances, however, were preceded by precursor support, something the actress' work in Sam Mendes' Empire of Light doesn't have much of beyond a lone Golden Globe nomination. And amid the embattled organization's attempt to re-establish itself as an awards powerhouse after a heavily publicized year of controversy, the Globes might not impact the race much at all this year, even for someone like Colman.
• SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Hong Chau, The Whale — The Watchmen and Downsizing actress gives one of the most moving performances of the year, but she hasn't shown up anywhere momentous on the precursor circuit so far, outside of a Gotham Awards nod and a smattering of praise from critics groups in smaller cities that, well, aren't New York or Los Angeles. Though it won't be as statistically unprecedented as her 2018 snub for Downsizing, we might be looking at yet another season of injustice for the performer's incredible work.

Eddie Redmayne on how The Good Nurse is part true crime, part 'love story'

By Sydney Bucksbaum

Eddie Redmayne is the first to admit he's not a fan of true crime. "Not at all," he tells EW. "It's of course fascinating. We're all curious about the darkness. But sometimes I've found that there can be a salacious or a sort of fetishized version that you feel a bit dirty as you're watching."

Despite the actor's hesitancy to go deep into that increasingly fan-favorite genre, he stars in one of the year's best examples of it, The Good Nurse, opposite Jessica Chastain. Director Tobias Lindholm's adaptation of Charles Graeber's 2013 book The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder, tells the true story of one of America's most prolific serial killers, Charlie Cullen (Redmayne). While working as a nurse, Cullen killed countless patients and was able to get away with it despite getting caught several times by publicity-averse hospitals — that is, until one brave nurse, Amy Loughren (Chastain), finally brought him to justice.

Redmayne says it was screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairn's script that drew him to the project. "I loved that you never saw this guy doing it," he explains. "It wasn't actually a film about him, it was about Amy, Jessica's character, the woman who stopped his horrendous deeds through compassion. The script didn't fit into a box. It felt genre in some ways — on the one hand it was a true-crime story — but it was also almost a love story, or a relationship story between two very close friends."

He was also shocked at how he had never heard of Cullen before signing on to The Good Nurse. "He's potentially the most prolific serial killer in American history, and yet I also wondered why I hadn't heard of him," Redmayne says. "As the film shows, there was a sort of coverup job going on in which this guy for nine years was moved from hospital to hospital, even though there was high suspicion that he was doing these things, because no one wanted to face the liability."

Redmayne and Chastain met years ago at the Giffoni Film Festival in Italy because they were staying at the same hotel. "I was swimming in the pool, and there was Jessica Chastain, wearing a very glamorous hat, and that's how we met — both two very pale people that should never be in the sunshine," he says. "We got on really well and for years we were bumping into each other in this odd way on red carpets or on talk-show couches, and we dreamt of working together, but it was only when this film arrived."

The Theory of Everything Oscar winner got to work immediately preparing for the role. "I'd read the book six years ago and I'd been germinating on it for a while," he says. "And the amazing thing about Tobias Lindholm, our director, is he insisted on a month's rehearsal which is sort of unheard of now because time is money. So Jess and I went to to nurse school for a couple of weeks and really worked together with Krysty, so that by the time we started shooting, we were all telling the same story. I know it sounds simple, but it's so rare in film."

While Chastain and Redmayne both got to meet and spend time with the real Loughren, they didn't meet the real-life Cullen, who is currently serving 11 consecutive life sentences in prison and faces another six life sentences.

"I'm not sure I do want to meet him, honestly," Redmayne says. "He's a complex man. There was all this stuff after he was imprisoned about donating a body part to save a friend, and there was a huge controversy over it because he was now sort of playing God from inside prison. There's an extraordinary ego on him. I'm much more interested in Amy, and I feel one of the great gifts of making this film was getting to spend time with someone who I think did dumbfoundingly admirable things but who doesn't think of herself as a hero."

The Good Nurse is now streaming on Netflix.

With reporting by Dave Karger

Oscars Flashback

Costume designer Ruth E. Carter breaks down the looks in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

With Wakanda Forever now in theaters, EW caught up with Carter to break down some of the sequel's most stunning looks. The final film boasts more than 2,000 unique costumes, but here, Carter opens up about a handful of highlights — from the new Black Panther suit to that iridescent Midnight Angel armor. Interview by Devan Coggan

Dave Karger's updated Oscar predictions for Best Picture

Now that several high-profile groups including the Golden Globes, AFI, and National Board Review have announced their nominees and honorees (as well as the New York and Los Angeles critics), we have a bit of a better idea where things are heading this awards season. The true test lies in the coming weeks with the myriad guild-award nominations, but the overall race is getting sharper. Thanks to their strong showings so far, Top Gun: Maverick and Everything Everywhere All at Once seem to be the two films that have a shot against The Fabelmans. Meanwhile, Empire of Light has failed to gain much traction in the Best Picture race so it has fallen off my list.

1. The Fabelmans
2. Top Gun: Maverick
3. Everything Everywhere All at Once
4. The Banshees of Inisherin
5. Avatar: The Way of Water
6. TÁR
7. Women Talking
8. Elvis
9. Babylon
10. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
11. The Woman King
12. RRR

Check out more from EW's The Awardist, featuring exclusive interviews, analysis, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year's best in TV.

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• Exploring Babylon, Damien Chazelle's star-studded new movie
• The true story behind The Good Nurse: Here's what really happened
• Can Angela Bassett win an Oscar for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever?