When Margot Robbie joined the Neighbours cast at the age of 17, the other actors “let her sleep on their couches” and taught her life lessons, including “Toadie showed me how to do taxes!”
When Margot Robbie joined the Neighbours cast as a naive teenager, her co-stars all chipped in to help her learn life lessons.
The 32-year-old Hollywood actress moved to Melbourne without any family or friends when she was just 17 years old to play Donna Freedman on the Australian series.
But her coworkers quickly adopted her, and Margot says they gave her the resources she needed to pursue acting as a full-time career.
Margot admitted she always intended to try to break America when her time on the soap opera came to an end after signing a contract.
“I asked Neighbours to kill me off in a big spectacular death, but they didn’t because they wanted to make sure I could have my job back if it didn’t work out in America,” she said. “That gave me all the drive I needed.”
Margot, who played Donna from 2008 to 2011, made a brief appearance in the soap opera’s final television episode, which she found to be “very emotional.”
She recalled: “Everyone on that show I was really, really close with… ” on Tuesday night at BAFTA: A Life In Pictures, sponsored by electronics company TCL.
I needed money to pay my rent, so Toadie [Ryan Moloney] taught me how to do my taxes and Dr. Karl [Alan Fletcher] helped me out with a side job.
‘Susan Kennedy [Jackie Woodburne] showed me how to roast a chicken… I slept on everyone’s couches! Everyone pitches in to help you out.’
She added: ‘I attribute so much of who I am now and what I can achieve now to being on Neighbours. I didn’t go to film or drama school, I learnt on the job. It was some of the greatest years of my life and like my university years.’
