The 10 Best Margot Robbie Performances, Ranked

In an underrated performance, Robbie stars in Dreamland, a film set in 1930s Texas with a Bonnie and Clyde-like premise. But this time, with a twist: now, the female is the criminal. Robbie plays Allison Wells, a fugitive bank robber who meets teenage Eugene Evans (played by Finn Cole of Peaky Blinders). He falls in love with her and becomes her partner in crime. The pair’s chemistry is off the charts, which makes the performances feel genuine. Toward the end of the film, in Allison’s final scene, Robbie radiates in the dramatic moment where she pleads with Eugene not to abandon her and their plans. “I didn’t make you into anything you didn’t already want to be,” Allison says to him while failing to realize what she’s created. The charisma and vulnerability Robbie is able to bring to Allison were crucial for the role to work and for viewers to see the complexity of her journey.

The lesser-known film first premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival and did not have a wide theatrical release. It hit theaters for a limited run in November 2020 but struggled at the box office, as the COVID-19 pandemic was at its height. With Robbie’s strong performance and Lyle Vincent’s stunning cinematography, it’s a shame this film didn’t get more attention.

Z for Zachariah is often overlooked when one thinks of Margot Robbie’s projects. This early-career credit features Robbie as Ann, an innocent young woman who lives a secluded life on her family’s farm, believing she is the last person on Earth after a nuclear war. The film is based on Robert C. O’Brien’s novel, directed by Craig Zobel (Mare of Easttown). It was an interesting choice for the actress as it’s one of her first non-bombshell roles post-Wolf of Wall Street. Here, she’s stripped down of all the glamour and her pure acting talents shine. Because the picture only features three characters in total, it relies heavily on the performances to carry it through.

The film co-stars Chris Pine’s Caleb and Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Loomis, who find each other and try to survive living in the same house. They end up in a love triangle, with both men vying for Ann’s affection, and she struggles with her emotions, tired of feeling isolated after her family’s death. Robbie’s able to convey humanity’s need for connection so effortlessly. While her decision to choose one man over the other leads to a detrimental act of jealousy and leaves Ann heartbroken, it causes Robbie to experience loneliness in an even deeper way. In a film where the premise seems simple, she brings her all to it.

It’s almost a rite of passage that an actress plays a historical figure or is in a period piece at some point in their career. However, not all of them are memorable. But in this film about Queen Elizabeth I (Robbie) and Mary Stuart’s (Saoirse Ronan) rivalry for the throne, Robbie delivers. 

The film’s big build-up moment is at the end when the two Queens come face to face for the first time. And the talents of Robbie and Ronan bounce off each other, with Robbie selling her performance by exuding the insecurity and envy Elizabeth I had for Mary. Robbie played a more vulnerable version of the monarch than might have been expected, as she struggles with maintaining power as a non-traditional Queen who has no spouse or children. Externally, Robbie also committed to the part, spending more than three hours a day in hair and makeup to replicate the Queen’s iconic look, as well as her illnesses, such as the scars from smallpox, which resulted in her wearing the white facial powder. Although Robbie doesn’t have a lot of screen time in this film as it focuses on Ronan’s Mary, the moments that are shown of her are impressive.

Despite Robbie’s minimal screen time in Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 film, she sure does leave an impression. Working with the Pulp Fiction director was a dream of Robbie’s, so after I, Tonya was released, she wrote him a letter, and he cast her in the film. Robbie plays Sharon Tate, the popular actress of the ‘60s who was married to director Roman Polanski and pregnant when she was murdered by members of the Manson Family in 1969. However, the film doesn’t focus on the horrific murders, but instead highlights Tate’s enamoring personality and presence. When the camera is on Robbie’s Tate, she lights up the screen. Whether she’s dancing or going to the Regency Bruin Theatre to watch herself in a movie, she exudes happiness, which is the key trait Robbie set out to accomplish. 

In preparation to portray the actress, Robbie spoke to Tate’s family members, including her sister, read books about Tate and watched her films. On days she was filming, she said, she would even tune out the real world by not checking emails to stay in the right mindset. Following the film’s premiere, there was controversy over why Robbie didn’t have more lines, to which Tarantino responded, “I reject your hypothesis,” when a journalist in Cannes asked him about the decision. For her role to spark a debate when the film’s two leads are Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio speaks to Robbie’s ability to captivate an audience.

One of the first films inspired by the #MeToo movement was Jay Roach’s 2019 movie, Bombshell. Unlike Robbie’s co-stars Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman who portrayed real-life news anchors Megyn Kelly and Gretchen Carlson, Robbie’s character, associate producer, Kayla Pospisil, is fictional. However, it’s based on the real-life women who allegedly endured harassment from Fox News’ Roger Ailes.

There’s a powerful scene in the film where Robbie, Kelly and Carlson (the latter two allegedly experienced sexual misconduct from Ailes) are in an elevator together, and the silence is loud, representing the shared isolating feeling of fear to come forward. And Robbie’s Kayla also has some of the most emotional and uncomfortable scenes in the film: she’s called into Ailes’ office thinking it’s a formal meeting to discuss her potential to report on air, but instead, he asks her to stand up, give him a twirl and lift up her dress, leaving her feeling humiliated. Another memorable moment takes place when Kayla breaks down, hysterically crying after tells her colleague turned friend, Jess Carr (Kate McKinnon) what happened with Ailes. The raw talent Robbie brought to her character earned her a second Oscar nomination, this time as best supporting actress.

Babylon is underappreciated. Damien Chazelle’s fifth feature film was a love letter to cinema that explored the 1920s transition of silent films to talkies. The movie featured a star-studded cast — in addition to Robbie, including Brad Pitt, Jean Smart, Diego Calva and Tobey Maguire — all of whom delivered strong performances. Robbie plays actress Nellie LaRoy, who is a rising star and loves to party. However, Nellie’s struggles to adapt to the changes being made in film lead to a meltdown at a party, which ultimately ruins her career.

Though Babylon received poor reviews and criticism for its three-and-a-half-hour runtime and being overindulgent, Robbie’s performance was praised. In fact, her scenes are arguably the most entertaining, with a high-energy dance sequence at the beginning, a chaotic snake bite scene and her ability to cry on command while she’s filming a movie — a skill Robbie learned while working on the Australian soap, Neighbours. The actress has said she wonders if, in 20 years, Babylon will be better received and connect with audiences in a later era. It very well could be. And that’d be a true meta moment for the film’s message and its final montage.

Blonde and flawless like a Barbie doll? Yeah, Margot Robbie fits the bill. In all seriousness, though, shout-out to everyone who advocated for Robbie to play the lead role in, not just produce, the film. In a movie that could very easily come across as superficial, as it’s based on the Mattel plastic doll, Barbie, the film Barbie has so much substance. As Robbie’s Barbie leaves Barbie Land behind to enter the real world, she realizes the obstacles women face and the unrealistic expectations set to be perfect, so well described in America Ferrera’s memorable monologue. Robbie nailed the complexity of a human Barbie while balancing the role’s comedic tones, not to mention the training she underwent to achieve her physique and the dance lessons for that grand party scene.

Robbie proved she’s a leading lady as the film broke box office records, earning more than $1.4 billion worldwide. It became the top-grossing film in Warner Bros.’ history. However, though the movie was nominated for eight Oscars, it only won one award, for best original song, and Robbie memorably failed to receive a best actress nomination and director Greta Gerwig didn’t receive a best director nod. But hey, there’s always the sequel, right? Here’s to hoping!

This was the role that put Margot Robbie on the map. While she had a prominent role in the Australian soap Neighbours years prior, Martin Scorsese’s 2013 black comedy, The Wolf of Wall Street, was her first American film. Based on Jordan Belfort’s memoir of the same name, the feature shows Belfort’s (Leonardo DiCaprio) transformation from a once modest stockbroker to a greedy millionaire and the head of brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont — as well as how his drug-fueled behaviors affected his relationships around him, including with his wife, Naomi (Robbie). 

“The hottest blonde ever,” read the description of Naomi (aka the “Duchess of Bay Ridge”) in the film’s script while Scorsese was casting for the part. During the audition for the film, she slapped DiCaprio across the face, fearing she would either be blacklisted or praised for her performance; the latter happened, and that move ultimately booked her the job. Robbie’s Naomi delivers several memorable lines that are still quoted in pop culture today like when she says, “were not gonna be friends” to DiCaprio’s Jordan when he’s still married to his first wife, or “Who’s Venice, huh?,” “Who? Who? What are you, a fucking owl?,” when she suspects Jordan’s been cheating on her. And you can’t forget the iconic scene (pictured above) when she withholds sex from Jordan as she thinks he’s been unfaithful, again. 

In a role where her character mainly serves as Jordan’s arm candy, Robbie instead used the opportunity to show her dramatic acting chops. In one of the film’s final sequences, she tells Jordan she wants a divorce, and she makes you feel her fear as she thinks she’s going to lose their child because of his recklessness. It’s hard to fathom this role didn’t earn Robbie her first Oscar nomination — and even harder to believe Robbie, herself, doesn’t think she did a good job — but it instead proved she was here to stay in Hollywood. 

Few actors seem like they were born to play certain comic book characters. Heath Ledger as The Joker, Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Tom Holland as Spider-Man — and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. Let’s be clear, all three of her turns as Harley are great. The debut in 2016’s Suicide Squad was needed to see her backstory as Dr. Harleen Quinzel; it was also satisfying to see her and The Joker (Jared Leto) finally together in a live-action adaptation of the comics, even if the film itself had its problems. Birds of Prey (2020) was also entertaining to see an expansion of the Clown Princess of Crime and her trying to move on from that co-dependent relationship and lead a fierce girl group. 

But above all, her performance in 2021’s The Suicide Squad is the best. She’s funny, full of high energy, and it’s clear she’s fully grown into what Harley should be. For the first time, fans see her completely independent of Mr. J., which adds an unpredictable element to single Harley that’s fun to watch. She also has that explosive escape sequence that the film’s writer-director, James Gunn, wrote for her, and Robbie trained to pull off the stunt herself, in addition to creating the choreography. As Gunn continues to expand the DC Universe, hopefully viewers will continue to see Robbie as Harley.

Starring in and producing I, Tonya was a pivotal choice in Margot Robbie’s career — it’s also one of the most interesting. Following the box office success of The Wolf of Wall Street and Suicide Squad, where she played supporting characters, this indie film showed Robbie’s ability to lead a movie and disappear into a character completely.

Robbie embodied Tonya Harding, the real-life Olympic figure skater, who at the height of her career successfully landed the rare triple Axel move. While CGI was used to re-create that skill on screen, Robbie trained extensively for five months, even the day before she married husband and LuckyChap co-founder Tom Ackerley, to learn how to skate like a professional. 

The movie portrays the disgraced figure skater who was accused of being involved in the assault of her rival, Nancy Kerrigan, whose knee was bashed in at the 1991 World Championships. Harding pleaded guilty to the crime and was banned for life from skating. The film also depicts the alleged physical abuse that Harding endured at the hands of her mom and ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly.

The scene of Robbie looking at herself crying in the bathroom is magic. All of the emotional turmoil Harding had built up from never feeling good enough her whole life is felt in that moment, without Robbie having to say a word. It’s worth noting that the actress also improvised that scene. A great choice by Robbie, as she’s able to make the audience see the complexity and pressures that this woman went through. She scored her first Oscar nomination at the 90th annual Academy Awards in 2018. While her co-star Allison Janney picked up a deserved win for best supporting actress, Robbie’s loss for best actress still stings.