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After months of buzz, the first trailer for Margot Robbie’s new movie I, Tonya is here.
In the teaser released overnight, Margot morphs into Tonya Harding, the disgraced American figure skater who was found to involved in the attack of her skating rival Nancy Kerrigan – Kerrigan was beaten with a bat outside a skating rink by a hit man.
“America: it wants someone to love,” Margot says, leaving behind her Australian accent for a convincing working class American one in the trailer’s voiceover.
“But they want someone to hate. And the haters always say: ‘Tonya, tell the truth!’
“There’s no such thing as truth,” she adds. “I mean, it’s bulls***!”
Margot has been the subject of awards season buzz for her portrayal of Harding in the dark comedy – reviewers from industry publications including Variety and Deadline have tipped her for a best actress nomination at the SAGs, Golden Globes and Oscars.
The Australian star has certainly earned the recognition after performing most of the ice skating in the film herself, which required a grueling training regimen.
“I think I did about three or four months of skating, like five times a week for a couple of hours a day,” she said at the Toronto Film Festival, where I, Tonya premiered.
“My alarm would go off at 5.30am and I’d want to cry,” she told Wonderland magazine. “Sometimes after sessions I’d get back into the car and weep.”
In 1994, the world media was sent into a frenzy when U.S. figure skating champion Nancy Kerrigan was attacked by a man with a bat outside a Detroit skating rink.
Despite the injury – her right leg was bruised but not broken – she went on to compete at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Norway and won silver, while Harding came eighth.
It was subsequently revealed that Tonya’s now ex-husband and her bodyguard hired a hitman to attack Kerrigan, and that Tonya was aware of it and conspired with them.
Harding was later stripped of her medals and banned from the sport as a result.
I, Tonya is scheduled for an Australian release in February.
