In Miramax’s “I, Tonya,” Margot Robbie stars as disgraced Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding, who became a household name after her ex-husband and bodyguard orchestrated a physical attack on her main competitor. But unbeknownst to many, Harding was also the victim of her ex’s violence.
“We actually spoke about the domestic violence a lot before shooting and especially when casting our Jeff,” Robbie told TheWrap’s Matt Donnelly. “It was so hard to find the person who could make the violence not seem premeditated and more reactionary, which is what Sebastian [Stan] did.”
Robbie, who also produced the film, was concerned that they had gone too far in telling the domestic violence angle of Harding’s story.
“All the way through preproduction, all the way through shooting — ‘Have we lost the audience now? Have we pushed too far? Is he still redeemable? Is she still redeemable?” she said. “Like, where is that line and how do we kind of walk along it?’”
She believes that breaking the fourth wall and having her character talk directly to the audience helped solve that problem. “I think, in that way, people were, like, ‘She’s fine. She’s talking to us.’ So it was a little easier to handle.”
Watch the full interview above.