The ordinary moments are the ones that you remember most.
In “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” (in theaters Sept. 19), Margot Robbie plays a woman named Sarah as she falls in love with a handsome loner, David (Colin Farrell), and wrestles with the death of her mom (Lily Rabe). During one emotional exchange, Sarah recalls how her mom used to make mashed potatoes and watch the Tom Hanks comedy “Big” with her whenever Sarah was feeling blue.
“It’s funny, I always asked my mom to make mashed potatoes as well,” Robbie says. “It was just in the script and I was like, ‘Yep, that’s exactly what I did as a kid.’ I was always like, ‘Can we have mashed potatoes, please?’ ”
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Margot Robbie, right and mom Sarie Kessler at the London premiere of “Barbie” on July 12, 2023.
Like her character, Robbie and her three siblings were raised by a single mom, Sarie Kessler, after her parents separated when she was 5. Kessler works as a physiotherapist and often accompanies her daughter to awards shows and movie premieres.
The Australian actress has explored the relationships between mothers and daughters in films such as “Barbie” and “I, Tonya.” She remembers having similarly personal conversations with “Big Bold Beautiful” director Kogonada, whom she fondly refers to as K.
“I find my mom in every project, really, but definitely in this one because my character also has a single mom,” Robbie says. “I read the script and I remember saying to K, ‘Sarah’s mom should be really tired,’ because that’s the reality of being a single mom. You’re exhausted.”
Growing up, “I remember my mom always closing her eyes at traffic lights and just saying, ‘Tell me when it goes green,’” Robbie recalls. “It was a fun game for us. We’d all be sitting in the back and then we’d be like, ‘It’s green!’ And she’d wake up. But she was just so tired.”
Sarie Kessler, left, and daughter Margot Robbie at a Los Angeles screening of “Babylon” on Dec. 15, 2022.
“A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” marks Robbie’s first film since she welcomed a child with her husband, Tom Ackerley, last October. The romantic drama uses magical realism to explore big ideas of grief and love, following David and Sarah as they revisit pivotal moments in each other’s lives. Robbie, 35, was hooked the moment she read the characters’ meet-cute.
“Quite early on the film, Sarah just says to David out of nowhere, ‘Will you marry me?’ ” Robbie says. “I remember thinking, ‘Yeah, I would do something like that: just ask someone I’ve known for five minutes if they’ll marry me.’ And honest to God, if they said yes, I would have been like, ‘It’s meant to be. We’ll get married.’ ”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Margot Robbie subtly honors mom in ‘A Big Bold Beautiful Journey’
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