Margot Robbie addresses that 'really weird' Vanity Fair profile
The profile was labelled misogynistic and criticised for its depictions of Australians
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Your support makes all the difference.Margot Robbie has described a controversial Vanity Fair profile of her as “really weird”, saying she left the interview with a sense of unease.
The profile prompted a great deal of controversy and was branded misogynistic for its descriptions of the 26-year-old Wolf of Wall Street actress. In the piece, the writer Rich Cohen described Robbie as having a “lost kind of purity” and as “sexy and composed even while naked but only in character”.
“She is 26 and beautiful, not in that otherworldly, catwalk way but in a minor knock-around key, a blue mood, a slow dance,” Cohen wrote. “She is tall but only with the help of certain shoes. She can be sexy and composed even while naked but only in character.”
The piece was also criticised for his description of Australia, Robbie’s home country. Cohen referred to Australians as “throwback people” who “live and die with the plot turns of soap operas” and described the country as being “America 50 years ago”.
Speaking to Channel Ten’s The Project, Robbie said she remembered thinking “that was a really odd interview” after it came to an end. “And then when I read it, I was like, ‘Yeah, the tone of this is really weird – like, I don’t really know what he’s trying to get at or play at’," she explained.
A number of comment articles and parodies were written in response but Robbie said she was surprised by the scale of the reaction. “I’ve read far more offensive, far more sexist, insulting, derogatory, disgusting things on a daily basis,” she said. “I don’t know, maybe I’m just desensitised to it now.”
While Robbie chose to stay out of discussions at the time she said she was thrilled to see Australians stand up for themselves.
Robbie rose to prominence after starring alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in the Wolf of Wall Street after launching her career in the Australian soap opera Neighbours.
Cohen, who is described as a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, has since defended his observations about Australia, saying they were intended as a “compliment”.
“To the extent that the point is serious, it’s a compliment. I'm saying that Australia is still a unified country whereas our American culture has shattered into warring camps. Australia had what we lost,” Cohen told Fairfax Media.
“I was mostly joking. It is a goof. Supposed to be funny,” he also said.
Representatives for Vanity Fair and Cohen did not immediately respond to request for comment.
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