The new film from La La Land filmmaker Damien Chazelle follows the rise and fall of many individuals during Hollywood’s shift from silent to sound filmmaking in the 1920s.
Margot Robbie says she found it “liberating” to portray a wild-child star of silent film in her new film Babylon.
At the film’s London premiere, she told, “I was able to do absolutely whatever. Which was incredibly liberating… every day on set was simply chaos.”
Oscar-winning director Damien Chazelle draws inspiration from both memory and rumor for the extreme extravagance and uncontrolled immorality that allegedly occurred behind the scenes in 1920s Hollywood.
As Nellie LaRoy, audiences will witness an out-of-control woman. Robbie consumes huge quantities of drugs, cries precisely on cue for the camera, and at one point wrestles a snake while intoxicated.
She chuckles, “It was a different ball game.” “I wish I could have witnessed filmmaking back then when it seemed there were no rules and everything was chaos.”
While she has revealed in interviews that a drunken kiss between her character and Brad Pitt was wholly improvised. Robbie claims that the vast majority of the turmoil onscreen was already written down.
“It contained some of the best lines and passages I’ve ever read. You could improvise for fun, but the script was so brilliant.”
‘Liberating’ 1920s Hollywood ‘had no rules’
Robbie, 32, was nominated for a Golden Globe for best actress in a musical or comedy. But lost to Michelle Yeoh for Everything, Everywhere, At Once.
In addition, Babylon was nominated for best film (musical or comedy), best actor (Diego Calva), best-supporting actor (Brad Pitt), and best original score.
Justin Hurwitz, who won an Oscar for his score for La La Land, received the sole Golden Globe for the film.
Steven Spielberg received the award for best drama for his drama The Fabelmans. And Colin Farrell won for his Irish black comedy The Banshees of Inisherin.
The film Babylon will be released on January 20.
