Margot Robbie Set to Play Tonya Harding in I, TONYA
Margot Robbie (Suicide Squad) has taken on the role of disgraced Olympic figure skater Tanya Harding in an upcoming movie called I, Tonya. This is definitely one of the strangest roles that Robbie has taken on yet.
You may or may not remember Harding, but she rose to the top of figure skating glory from a poor and rough childhood. She was the first woman to complete the triple axel in major competitions, and it led her to winning the 1991 U.S. Figure Skating Championships and coming in second in the World Championships.
In 1994, she was set to compete in the Olympic Games in Lillehammer against Nancy Kerrigan. That's when her life took a weird turn. Hardy's husband and a couple of other thugs were hired to attack Kerrigan and break her leg. Luckily for her, they sucked at their job and only bruised her leg, then they got caught, and Hardy's husband turned against her to try and stay out of jail.
That year, Kerrigan won the Silver Medal and Harding finished eighth as her life was taking a dive into the abyss. As information on the scandal unfolded, Harding was stripped of her 1994 championship, and the USFSA banned her from figure skating for life.
Deadline says that the movie "has the potential to be another To Die For, the Gus Van Sant-directed film that starred Nicole Kidman in a tale of naked ambition and the price for fame."
The script was written by Steven Rogers, who apparently did "extensive interviews with both Harding and Gillooly, capturing the absurdity of what happened but also the tragic part of the Harding saga, and trying to come from nothing to prominence in a sport where most of the competitors are the children of wealthy families that can afford all the ice time and trainers needed to get to that high a level."
Robbie has proven to be a great actress, and it will be interesting to see how she embodies this character and portrays her in the film. I'm sure this movie will be a lot better than the 1994 TV movie, Tonya & Nancy: The Inside Story.