Margot Robbie has made a name for herself in Hollywood over the years. She has appeared in almost 30 movies and has garnered fame and critical acclaim for her performances. The actress is among the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood today. However, Robbie came from humble beginnings on the sets of Neighbours.
Margot Robbie played Donna Freedman in Neighbours
In case you don’t know, Neighbours is an Australian television soap opera, which has aired since March 1985. The show has aired 38 seasons and nearly 9000 episodes to date.
Margot Robbie made her first appearance on the show on 2nd June 2008. The then 17-year-old Australian actress was cast as the schoolgirl Donna Freedman in a guest capacity but was swiftly promoted to the main cast of the soap opera. The character remained in the show until 26th January 2011, meaning she was in the show for just shy of two years.
Robbie confirmed in September 2010 that she had decided not to renew her contract at Neighbours and left with ambitions to continue her career in Hollywood.
In a statement, she revealed stating,
“I want to go to America; it’s always been my goal to work in Hollywood. It’s the one stage in my life where I have absolutely nothing holding me down,” she said in a statement at the time.
She added:
“I have plenty of friends over there so I’ll have plenty of couches to crash on.”
It would turn out to be one of the best decisions she’s ever made.
Robbie had a sweet gesture for the cast of Neighbours
In November 2022, Margot took to the stage for the ‘BAFTA Life in Pictures special supported by TCL – making her the youngest ever guest to take part. While on stage the Australian actress revealed her sweet gesture to the cast and crew after learning that the soap would be coming to an end.
Of course, Neighbours still airs to this day and has found a new home on Amazon Freevee since 2023. However, prior to this, when Margot had initially heard that it would be ending, she sent over a pretty lavish surprise:
“I wrote everyone a big letter and kind of recapped some of the funny times and things that I remember from our time. I sent like 37 bottles of champagne for every year that the show had been on air, and then of course I did a little video that they could play during the last episode.”
Robbie thanks Neighbors for shaping her career
Margot revealed that Neighbours played a big part in shaping her career. She said,
“I attribute so much of who I am now and what I am now to being on Neighbours. I didn’t go to film school or drama school, I wish that I had, but I learnt on the job I was on Neighbours. I did 300 episodes on that soap in three years and I mean you learn a lot and it was some of the greatest years of my life. It was like my university years and my last day on Neighbours was like graduating; you give speeches, you get gifts – it’s a whole thing.”
She also opened up about how the cast taught her valuable life lessons saying,
“Toadie [Ryan Moloney] taught me how to do my taxes and, you know, Dr. Karl [Alan Fletcher] helped me out with the side gig because I needed money to pay rent and Susan Kennedy [Jackie Woodburne] showed me how to roast a chicken, I mean everyone. I had slept on everyone’s couches and everyone pitches in and helps you out so when it was ending it was, you know, it’s just a very… emotional thing.”
