In her most recent film, the Australian plays an actress addicted to cocaine. When she starts a movie she starts the magic. Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt, protagonists of the recently released Babylon, a film that deals with the subject, know it well.
For magic to be possible, a good predisposition from the spectator and certain tricks that generate the desired reality effect are needed. That's why when the actors dance it looks like they're professionals, when they smoke it looks like they're consuming tobacco or when they snort we have the illusion that they're doing it seriously.
In Damien Chazelle's new film, Nellie LaRoy and Manny Torres, characters played by Robbie and the Mexican Diego Calva, get high everywhere. In a memorable scene from the opening sequence, the two take cocaine together and then crash a wild party.
On this, Robbie confirmed to Buzzfeed that no one takes cocaine on the set and revealed what Hollywood blockbusters usually use to replace the drug when recording.
What's the trick?
According to Robbie, when we see cocaine being snorted on TV shows and movies, the most often used is B vitamin powder or baby powder laxative. Also, to a lesser extent, the art kits use icing sugar.
The Australian actress made it clear that inhaling fake drugs "isn't nice."
The same goes for cigarettes: on the set of Babylon, in her case, she used non-nicotine herbal cigarettes that "are terrible and taste horrible." And Calva agreed: "The cigarettes smelled strange."
They both smoked to build their characters and, in Robbie's case, to give LaRoy a raspy voice.
Babylon tells, in approximately three hours, the rise and fall of a group of characters in Hollywood in the 20s and 30s, a time when cinema went from being silent to sound. There are parties, orgies, massive sets, good music and, as you may have noticed, lots of drugs.
Babylon, a box office flop
Babylon, which came from the hand of Oscar-winning Chazelle, maker of Whiplash and La La Land, did not have the expected pace in American theaters.
It's having a hard time reaching $20 million after a rocky start, and unless a miracle happens to the rest of the world, it won't be able to hit its lofty $80 million-plus production cost to turn a profit.
In turn, although it divided critics' opinions, it was not nominated for any main Oscar either. In the next edition of the Academy Awards, it will compete in three equally important categories: Best Original Score, Best Costume Design and Best Production Design.
