Over the last several years, Margot Robbie has truly skyrocketed to Hollywood fame. She's done so much, which makes it easy to forget that the actress and producer is just 33 years old and still has an entire career ahead of her for us to get excited about. Think about all the fantastic roles we’ve yet to see from the actress, and the sky is truly the limit thanks to her starring turn in 2023's most successful film, Barbie. Interestingly, something recently dawned on me about Robbie after learning she had a "crazy" good American Horror Story years ago: she’s never once done a horror project!
Ok, so she technically did do a super low-budget Australian horror movie called I.C.U.. Still, the actress hasn't starred in any massive, mainstream fright-inducing productions, and that's wild to me. Let’s talk about it.
That Time Margot Robbie Auditioned For American Horror Story
Eric Dawson, a casting director who has filled the cast for every season of Ryan Murphy’s hit and very star-studded series, shared that Margot Robbie actually auditioned for an undisclosed role in the second season of the show, Asylum. The season, which aired in 2012, counted the likes of Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Lily Rabe, Chloë Sevigny, Clea DuVall, Adam Levine and Jenna Dewan among its cast. Here’s what he said about the audition and the decision not to cast her while speaking with Backstage:
Margot is probably one of my favorite auditions of all time, and it was right before she broke out. She was such a star. It was crazy, her star appeal when she walked in the room. Even though she didn’t get that role, that was one of those things as a casting director where you go: This is a star, what do we do with her? Immediately, though, she was out of our realm of possibility of hiring. But that’s really the fun part of casting, is seeing the people whose careers are just rising.
It was between 2011 and 2013 when Margot Robbie really began to get her big break, between her starring role in ABC’s Pan Am, supporting gig in About Time and breakthrough in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street. As Eric Dawson shared, her audition was unbelievably good for American Horror Story, but it sounds like the show just missed out on casting her!
What’s Up With Margot Robbie Avoiding Horror Projects?
14 American Horror Story Cast Members Who've Been In The Most Seasons
Now, it wouldn’t be until 2016’s Suicide Squad that we really saw Margot Robbie’s ability to play twisted characters, but this whole story has me thinking about the realm of possibilities for Robbie in the horror space. Now, I know the genre isn’t always a place for movie stars. However, between her take on Harley Quinn in the DCEU and her absolutely chilling performance as Tonya Harding in 2017’s I, Tonya, I can totally see her pulling out a wild performance.
While it's true the roles that I mentioned weren't horror-centric, they do show the star's knack for playing out madness on screen. I'd like to think that a skilled director like Ari Aster or Jordan Peele could put those talents to work in a major way. It’s actually surprising to me that she hasn’t made the leap and worked with filmmakers like those already, but maybe she’s just not into the genre? Either way, now I’m not getting this idea out of my head anytime soon.
Meanwhile, the next American Horror Story season (which will be streamable with a Hulu subscription) is subtitled Delicate and based on the book Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine. The season recently released a first look at its stars including Kim Kardashian, Emma Roberts and Cara Delevingne. That promotion came ahead of its premiere on the 2023 TV schedule, which will happen on Wednesday, September 20. We’ve got our theories ready for the new AHS season but, of course, I’m now thinking about how incredible it would have been for Robbie to join the cast of women!
