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Making a splashHardwork has paid off for formerNeighbours actressMargotRobbie.ByNEALA JOHNSON

Clockwise from main, Margot Robbie lights up the red carpet; in an infamously sultry TheWolf of Wall Street scene with Leonardo DiCaprio; Robbie during her Neighbours days

Having the

Neighbours contract

was perfect; it gave

me the time to put

everything in place,

sowhen I did get to

America I could hit

the ground running

MARGOT Robbie wouldlike to issue a dis-claimer: ‘‘I’m not

that good.’’At just 23, the Queensland-

born-and-bred actor has madea huge Hollywood splash, go-ing scene for sexy scene withLeonardo DiCaprio in MartinScorsese’s Oscar-nominatedtale of stockbroker excess,The Wolf of Wall Street.

Robbie not only won therole over higher-profile youngactors, she took what couldhave been a thankless trophy-wife part and turned it into amemorable ballbreaker.

Most would have by nowseen the image of Robbie withher stiletto heel planted onDiCaprio’s forehead, from ascene where wife works hus-band into a sexual lather thenkeeps him hanging, just toprove she has some power inthe relationship. That’s justthe tip of the iceberg; Robbielaughs that it’s a good thingthose shocked by the de-bauchery in the film ‘‘didn’tsee the original draft’’.

The casting director whoput the Australian in front ofScorsese, Ellen Lewis, hassaid that, while it was a‘‘provocative film’’, Robbiewasn’t intimidated.

‘‘I guess I was just hiding itvery well, because I was ter-ribly intimidated,’’ Robbielaughed. ‘‘But with thosetricky scenes, I feel like if youdon’t commit to it 100 per cent,they end up looking silly. So Ithought, ‘It’s all or nothing,’and I really went for it.’’

It turned out to be a dreamstart (Wolf is only Robbie’ssecond international feature,after British rom-com AboutTime). Yet the success nowhas Robbie worried that she’slost the element of surprise.

‘‘The nice thing is, whenno one knows you, the bar isset really low . . . So youhave the ability to exceed ex-pectations,’’ she said.

Post-Wolf, ‘‘everyone’s setthe bar really high and expectsme to be brilliant. I almostwant to put the disclaimer outthere first: ‘I’m not that good!Don’t set your expectationstoo high!’ It’s going to beharder now, if anything.’’

One gets the feeling Robbiewill be OK — she got herselfthis far, after all.

Though the graduation from

Neighbours or Home and Awayto Hollywood stardom seemsalmost de rigueur these days(Melissa George, Chris Hems-worth, Ryan Kwanten, Isla Fi-sher, Jesse Spencer, etc), Rob-bie’s shot at the States wasno afterthought.

In that way, she has some-thing in common with hernext ridiculously famous co-star, Will Smith. (They teamup in pickpocket comedy Fo-cus, to be released later in2014.) After deciding he want-ed to be the biggest movie starin the world, Smith closelystudied the careers of thosealready there.

Robbie was similarly sys-tematic: using her time onNeighbours to draw up a ca-reer road map and start putt-ing it into action — for in-stance, taking Americanaccent lessons two years be-fore she stepped foot in US.

‘‘I didn’t grow up knowinganyone in the industry, so Ididn’t know how anyone

would go about pursuing a ca-reer in acting. It was never aplausible career choice,’’Robbie said.

‘‘When I started working onNeighbours, I met people whohad been doing it for 20 yearsand supported their familyquite comfortably. It sud-denly dawned on me that youcould do it as a career.

‘‘But it wasn’t just hittingthe jackpot — Angelina Joliedidn’t just win the lotto.There were steps you couldtake to pursue that, to make itsomething you could live off.So that’s when the planstarted forming.

‘‘Having the Neighbourscontract was perfect; it gaveme the time to put everythingin place, so when I did get toAmerica I could hit theground running.’’

Now Robbie is a bit of anevangelist for the virtues ofhard work: ‘‘I just keep tryingto tell people, when they seethese things that seem so outof reach, ‘No, trust me, if youput the time and the effortand the work in, it will hap-pen. It has to happen’.’’

Happen, it has, for Robbie.Or perhaps that should be hap-pening, it is. Fresh from wow-ing the red carpet at theGolden Globes and SAGawards in LA, she flew hometo show off Wolf to friends andfamily at the Brisbane pre-miere. A day or two after that,she left for New Zealand,where she’ll this week beginshooting her ‘‘passion pro-ject’’, the post-apocalyptic dra-ma Z for Zachariah, with Ch-iwetel Ejiofor and Chris Pine.

‘‘Right after filming Wolf ofWall Street, still no one knewwho I was,’’ Robbie said.‘‘They went with another ac-tress (Amanda Seyfried) whoobviously had more internat-ional value. It made sense.’’

Then Seyfried pulled out.‘‘Somehow I got the good

fortune of having the scriptback on my lap,’’ Robbie said,‘‘and I had two days to fightfor it as much as I could.’’

She’s also been rumouredas a likely Jane to AlexanderSkarsgard’s Tarzan in a bigbudget reinvention. That oneis ‘‘still in the works . . . but avery exciting prospect’’.

Much like Robbie herself.The Wolf of Wall Street is

nowshowing