'I LEARNT ON NEIGHBOURS - IT WAS MY UNIVERSITY'

AS SHE REFLECTS ON HER INCREDIBLE CAREER SO FAR, A-LIST ACTRESS MARGOT ROBBIE CELEBRATES HER JOURNEY FROM RAMSAY STREET TO HOLLYWOOD STARDOM

- RHIANNA BENSON

Margot Robbie has come a very long way since her days playing fiery teenager Donna Freedman in Neighbours. Since then, the Aussie star, 32, has become one of film's most in-demand leading ladies, starring in movies such as Bombshell, Amsterdam and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. So it's hard to believe that only 10 years ago she was still finding her feet in Tinseltown.

Sitting down to chat at BAFTA's Central London headquarters, she candidly recalls her journey from humble soap actress to global megastar - and what a trip it has been so far.

Margot was aged just 17 when she landed the role of Donna in the much-loved soap- and she now feels only pride for her Ramsay Street beginnings.

"I attribute so much of who and what I am now to being on Neighbours," she says. "I didn't go to film school or drama school - I wish that I had - but I learnt on the job. I did three years, some of the greatest years of my life. It was like they were my university years and my last day on Neighbours was like graduating."

Margot also famously joined Ramsay Street veterans Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Guy Pearce for Neighbours' final episode.

"Everyone on that show I was really close with, and not just because I spent that amount of time with them, but because I was 17 when I started living in Melbourne," she says. "To me, that was the Big Smoke. I didn't know anyone."

As well as helping her develop as an actress, her castmates taught her valuable life lessons off-screen, too.

"Toadie [Ryan Moloney] taught me how to do my taxes," she said. "And Susan Kennedy [Jackie Woodburne] showed me how to roast a chicken."

After 300 episodes, a then 20-year-old Margot felt her time on the soap had run its course and she set her sights on cracking Hollywood.