Posted in: Movies | Tagged: HRL, i tonya, margot robbie, tonya harding

'I, Tonya' Is The Talk Of TIFF, But Star Margot Robbie Didn't Know Tonya Harding Was A Real Person

Published Sat, 09 Sep 2017 16:15:08 -0500

Last updated Sat, 09 Sep 2017 19:12:45 -0500

The reviews are coming in from the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) for I, Tonya, and the film has received a lot of acclaim. But in an interview this week, star Margot Robbie revealed that she was unaware the movie was based on a true story when she first read the script.

So far, I, Tonya, directed by Craig Gillespie and also starring Sebastian Stan as Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gilooly and Allison Janney as mom LaVona Harding, has scored positive reviews from Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Uproxx, Collider, Vanity Fair, and from various critics on Twitter as well. The movie tells the story of Tonya Harding's life, focusing of course on the 1994 attack on fellow Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan that captivated the hearts and minds of the media back in the 1990s. Robbie's performance in particular has gotten a lot of praise.

But in an interview with Vanity Fair on Friday, Robbie, who was born in 1990, revealed that she had never heard of Harding before the movie, and that she thought the film was fiction after reading the script.

"I think I was about four years old when the incident took place," Robbie explained. "I was in Australia and totally unaware of the whole incident and the crazy controversy. To be honest, when I read the script, I didn't know who Tonya Harding was, and I didn't realize it was a true story. I thought it was entirely fictionalized and our writer Steve [Rogers] was so creative to come up with the quirky characters and absurd incidents."

Well, it all seemed to work out for the best.

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