Featured Image Credit: Stills Press / Francis Specker / Alamy
Topics: Celebrity, Margot Robbie, Playboy, Hugh Hefner
Jake Massey
Topics: Celebrity, Margot Robbie, Playboy, Hugh Hefner
Margot Robbie is now one of the biggest names in Hollywood, but back when she was just beginning to take off, she turned down an opportunity to appear in Playboy.
Her big breakthrough came on Martin Scorsese's 2013 hit movie The Wolf of Wall Street, in which she played the second wife of controversial stockbroker Jordan Belfort, played by Leonardo DiCaprio.
The role featured numerous sexual scenes, including a full-frontal nude scene, and these naturally caught the attention of late Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.
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He may not have known her name - but he did know he wanted her in his magazine.
Speaking to Us Weekly back in 2014, he said: "The girl that plays [Jordan Belfort's] wife in [Wolf of Wall Street] is very, very pretty.
"She should be in Playboy. Send her a message! We're ready for her. She would be great."
Robbie - who was just 23 at the time - declined the offer.
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"I've put my family through enough," she told New Zealand radio station, The Edge.
Robbie has admitted that when she accepted the part in The Wolf of Wall Street she was apprehensive about the sexual scenes being immortalised on the internet.
However, when director Scorsese suggested diluting things for her comfort, she made the brave decision to turn him down, in favour of preserving the integrity of the film.
Speaking to The Telegraph in 2014, she said: "I think nudity for the sake of nudity is shameful. If they've put it in just so that a girl gets her top off, then that's disgusting. And you can always tell.
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"But I also think it's disgusting when someone would have got naked in real life, in the film they conveniently leave their bra on, or hold up the bed sheet. Seeing someone being choreographed into being covered up irritates me just as much."
She continued: "The whole point of Naomi is that her body is her only form of currency in this world.
"So when Marty [Scorsese] was trying to help me out, and said in the scene where she seduces Jordan perhaps I could have a robe on, I said she wouldn't. She has to be naked. She's laying her cards on the table."
Robbie's commitment to authenticity is admirable, but that's not to say she didn't find it difficult and embarrassing.
Reflecting on shooting a memorable seduction scene in the movie, she told Porter in a 2018 interview: "It doesn't come across when you're watching the movie, but in reality we're in a tiny bedroom with 30 crew crammed in.
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"All men. And for 17 hours I'm pretending to be touching myself. It's just a very weird thing and you have to bury the embarrassment and absurdity, really deep, and fully commit."