There are quite a few memorable Olympics moments that have happened over the years. Depending on when a lot of us were born, we may or may not be familiar with the Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan saga, a story that began with the two ice skaters in competition and ended when Harding's ex-husband and others hired Shane Stant to attack Kerrigan. It's a story that is being told with the upcoming I, Tonya movie, but star Margot Robbie didn't believe the tale was real when she first read the script. She recently admitted,
I thought, this writer is so kooky for coming up with all of this stuff! And then I realized it was a true story, and I was absolutely blown away.
To Margot Robbie's credit, Tonya Harding's story is a rather wild one. In January of 1994, Nancy Kerrigan was struck in the knee following a skating practice in Detroit. Her assailant was Shane Stant, a man who had been hired by Tony Hardin's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly and Shawn Eckhardt, so that Kerrigan would not make it to the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer that year. Because Kerrigan's knee wasn't totally ruined, she was able to recover and both women competed at the Olympics that year. Kerrigan nabbed the silver medal while Harding placed eighth. Harding took a plea deal regarding the famous incident.
After learning more about Tonya Harding's story and her impact on history and especially the history of sports, she also told the NY Post that she spent a long time trying to get into the mind space Tonya Harding was in during the events that occur in I, Tonya. She said watching archival footage of Harding being on edge in interviews was "painful to watch." She used that footage to get a grip on the character before eventually meeting Tonya Harding in the flesh.
The two are fairly chummy now. Margot Robbie has previously stated that she has "texted" with Tonya Harding and has found her to be "lovely" and "understanding" when it comes to Robbie retelling her story. (Margot Robbie is also a producer on I, Tonya.) The two even spent some time together at the I, Tonya premiere where they had a great photo opp and seemed to pal around a bit.
I, Tonya is a mix of fact and fill in the dots, and you can see whether that makes for an engaging movie this week, before heavy holiday hitters like Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle are officially out. To find out more about what is coming this holiday season, take a look at our full movies schedule, and if you haven't seen footage for I, Tonya yet, check it out.
