‘Babylon’ depicts the hedonism of Hollywood in the old times, but even Margot Robbie thought the drug-use in the movie was a bit excessive.
Margot Robbie’s Babylon has been scandalising people left, right, and centre for not just its hardcore depiction of Hollywood life, but also the excess substance-use in the movie. According to Robbie, however, the movie would have had even more copious amounts of substances had she not intervened.
In an interview with NME, Robbie revealed that she advised director Damien Chazelle to take it easy with the amount of drugs being shown on screen.
“I think the only note I gave Damien… obviously there’s a lot of drugs in this movie and I play a character who does tons of drugs. But he would have them rack up lines of coke that were just like the size of hot dogs.” Robbie recalled, admitting she felt both amused and horrified at the situation.
Added Robbie: “I was like, ‘Damien, she’d be dead. This is an OD situation. People are going to watch this movie and know that this is ridiculous.’ And he’s like, ‘But it’s not reading on camera,’ and I’m like, ‘It’s insane.’”
Turns out, she was right about the amount of substance being shown. As she revealed, a couple of her friends had also thought the same thing: “Actually [I met] a couple of friends last night that was the first thing they said. They were like, ‘It’s a bit ridiculous how much coke there was.’”
While preparing for her role in Babylon, Robbie certainly tapped into the wilder instinct that the movie coincidentally wears with pride. For a scene where her character had to fight a rattlesnake, she took inspiration by watching videos of honey badgers fighting snakes.
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“There are actual videos of honey badgers fighting snakes. There’s videos of honey badgers, which aren’t huge animals, fighting lions. And they have really thick skin. [My character Nellie] fights anything and anyone at the drop of a hat.” She said during a recent appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show.
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