Margot Robbie auditioned for American Horror Story: Asylum… right before her breakthrough role in The Wolf of Wall Street
With Margot Robbie’s blockbuster Barbie becoming the highest-grossing film of 2023, it has been revealed that her career could have taken a different turn.
The 33-year-old Australian actress had a handful of minor film and TV roles to her credit before landing her first major leading role in the short-lived ABC series Pan-Am, which ran for one season in 2011-2012.
A year after that show went off the air, in 2013 she played the role of Naomi Lapaglia alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street, which launched her career into the stratosphere.
However, between Pan-Am and The Wolf of Wall Street, Robbie auditioned for a role in the second season of FX’s horror anthology series American Horror Story: Asylum.
Casting director Eric Dawson revealed in an interview with Backstage that Robbie’s audition for an unknown role – which many fans believe is Lizzie Brochere’s Grace – is one of his favorite auditions ever.
Margot’s audition: With Margot Robbie’s blockbuster Barbie becoming the highest-grossing film of 2023, it’s revealed her career could have taken a different turn
Audition: However, between Pan-Am and The Wolf of Wall Street, Robbie auditioned for a role in the second season of FX’s horror anthology series American Horror Story: Asylum
“Margot has a lot of ‘it’ factors. That’s the tricky thing for casting directors who aren’t (anymore) in the room with actors,” Dawson admitted.
Margot is probably one of my favorite auditions of all time, and it was right before she broke out. She was such a star,” he added.
“It was crazy, her star appeal when she entered the room. Even though she didn’t get that part, that was one of those things you go to as a casting director: this is a star, what are we supposed to do with her?’ he admitted.
“But right away she was beyond our ability to hire anyone. But that’s really the fun thing about casting, seeing the people whose careers are just taking off,” he added.
After Robbie’s turn alongside DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street, within a few years she was working among some of the Hollywood elite.
She co-starred with Will Smith in 2015’s Focus and Tina Fey in 2016’s Whiskey Tango Foxtrot before entering the superhero realm with Suicide Squad later that year.
She earned her first Oscar nomination for playing the controversial figure skater Tonya Harding in I, Tonya in 2017, which she followed up by showing off her range.
She was set to play Queen Elizabeth I in 2018’s Mary Queen of Scots and actress Sharon Tate in Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
It Factors: ‘Margot has a lot of ‘it’ factors. That’s the tricky thing for casting directors who aren’t (anymore) in the room with actors,” Dawson admitted.
Favorite: “Margot is probably one of my favorite auditions of all time, and it was right before she broke out. She was such a star,” he added
Now she’s entering a whole new level of stardom with Barbie, who has broken box office records left and right, becoming the first film with a solo female director to earn $1 billion worldwide.
Robbie, who also produced the film through her LuckyChap Entertainment company that she co-founded with husband Tom Ackerley in 2014, will take home a huge reward.
Variety reported in August that Robbie was expected to make as much as $50 million for starring in and producing Barbie.
She will reunite with her Barbie co-star Ryan Gosling in an untitled Ocean’s Eleven remake.