The Age Of Margot

She started her own production company at 24, can count Scorcese and Tarantino among her fans, and Charlize Theron finds her intimidating. Here’s how Margot Robbie went from being a girl in the Australian outback to Hollywood powerhouse.

- Sandra Parmee

At just 30 years old, Margot Robbie is building quite an empire. The Australian-born actress has starred opposite countless Hollywood heavyweights, caught the attention of big names like Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino and started a production company (at 24!). In 2019, Forbes ranked her as the eighth highest-paid actress in the world, while The Hollywood Reporter named her among the 100 most powerful people in entertainment. This year has seen her star in superhero film Birds of Prey and produce the thriller Promising Young Women starring Carey Mulligan. She is also in talks to star in a female-driven Pirates of the Caribbean – clearly Margot isn’t content with leaving certain genres to the boys.

Her beginnings were pretty humble. Margot grew up on Australia’s Gold Coast and her parents divorced when she was young, so her mother, Sarie, was a single parent of four. ‘We weren’t easy kids; we didn’t make it easy for Mum,’ Margot admits. She was assertive and craved independence from a young age. ‘When I was five I was watching my mum put spread on my sandwich for school and I was saying, “It’s not going to the edges.” She was like, “If I am not doing it right, do it yourself.” So I started making my lunch from five years old. If I wanted something a certain way, I just did it myself.’