Robbie portrayed Tonya Harding, one of the most famous figure skaters ever, in I, Tonya. Tonya was a young ice queen from Portland, Oregon, who had become a tabloid sensation following her World Championships competitor, Nancy Kerrigan, who was thrown out of the contest after being hit in the knee with a baton. It was the most heinous act of vandalism in the sport’s history.
Robbie, on the other hand, has never been this good. She makes the most out of her first big part since “Z for Zachariah,” skating deftly from glory and the muck. Her portrayal, empathetic but not overly so, is all that keeps the film’s shaky grip on its nauseating tragicomedy. The tone may have to be this manner in order to get people to understand that fact. Harding’s narrative would not have withstood the bleak “Foxcatcher” treatment but Robbie is able to seamlessly go from victim to antagonist and back again.
Before the shooting of I, Tonya began, skate coach Sarah Kawahara promised the director that he’d be able to capture significant material of Margot and not just backup doubles for re-creating Tonya Harding’s iconic 1994 skating to Jurassic Park’s soundtrack. Kawahara and Robbie typically met in Los Angeles beforehand shooting to do ground warm-ups and mirroring work (in shoes, then skates), then translating her skills to the ice. She performed five sequences with Kawahara in all, some of which were over a minute long. Robbie, a professional actress, is described by Kawahara as a “brilliant, talented sportswoman.”
Robbie must first speak like Tonya Harding before she can genuinely be Tonya Harding. Robbie collaborated with voice coach Liz Himelstein, who also trained Robbie on Harding’s vocal tone at various ages all throughout the film, to learn the Oregon-born Harding’s bland Pacific Northwest accent. Meanwhile, Robbie’s face was transformed into Harding’s with the use of “reverse contouring,” which involves light coloring on the cheekbones and nose (rather than dark shading) to produce a plumper facial structure, and sticky glue pushing the edges of her eyes lower to make them “less dazzling.”
All these things with Margot Robbie’s acting skills brought the character of Tonya to life.