Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Lisa Laman | Film | September 19, 2025
Margot Robbie has excelled as a performer right from the start. With her grand entrance in About Time (her first major feature film credit), she instantly exuded movie star energy that audiences couldn’t look away from. Just a little over a month after that Richard Curtis directorial effort, Robbie held her own against Leonardo DiCaprio in her unforgettable Wolf of Wall Street turn. From there, Robbie’s been an actress who exudes transfixing gusto and magnetism. Across Barbie, Babylon, Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood, I, Tonya, and other films, she’s just crushed it.
Robbie’s talents are so immense that they even leave an impression when she doesn’t have much screentime. Case in point: her Asteroid City cameo. This performance didn’t just populate Robbie’s extraordinary three consecutive amazing performances (along with Babylon and Barbie) from December 2022 to July 2023, one of the greatest one-two-three punches ever in the history of film acting. Even with only a scrap of screentime, Robbie is extraordinary in City and delivers one of the best performances ever in a Wes Anderson movie. That’s the kind of seemingly impossible feat Robbie pulls off effortlessly, especially in her Asteroid City role that’s absolutely perfect for her sensibilities.
“I Still Don’t Understand The Play.”
Asteroid City is a multi-layered narrative simultaneously following the fictional characters of a play called Asteroid City and the various artists bringing this production to life. In an inspired visual flourish, the “fictional” world is filmed like a movie emulating reality while “actual reality” is shot and acted like it’s a stage play. Leading Asteroid City is Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman), a character played by Jones Hall (also Schwartzman). Throughout Asteroid City, Steenbeck being a widow is frequently mentioned; at one point, viewers see a locket with an image of the now deceased lady. Otherwise, she’s absent from the show. Her scene got cut, you see.
In Asteroid City’s finale, Hall leaves the show to confront director Schubert Green (Adrien Brody) with one fateful truth: “I still don’t understand the play.” Confusion consuming his brain, Hall goes outside for a smoke. While on the balcony, he sees, just next door, the actress once set to play Steenbeck’s wife. This unnamed woman is Margot Robbie, a perfect casting choice for a character that’s had such a quiet yet meaningful build-up. This axed Asteroid City stage performer is only on-screen for a fleeting scene. For that minimal screentime, you need somebody who can leave a tremendous impression quickly. Plus, all that build-up regarding Steenbeck’s wife has built up this widow in the minds of Asteroid City moviegoers. Having her embodied by Robbie lives up to all the narrative foreplay.
Robbie’s extraordinary in her go-for-broke choices as a performer, such as her fearlessly jagged Babylon work or her love for a Brooklyn accent in projects like The Suicide Squad. Within this emotionally intimate Asteroid City scene, though, Robbie is transfixing, exuding a more subdued air. Even when her actress character remarks how “they cut me after one rehearsal,” it’s delivered with nonchalant candidness, not vivid bitterness. It was a while ago. She’s moved on to other performances. Then, Robbie’s actress begins reciting her deleted lines to Hall, which involve their two characters having a conversation on an alien moon. Her deliveries in this scene are so…magically moving.
Her character’s standing still, not even moving her arms or head. These lines flow out of her lips while her body remains stagnant, yet there’s still rich emotion within each word. This monologue amounts to a deceased wife advising her widowed husband on how to navigate fatherhood and the messiness of that process. Robbie’s soft, tender vocals communicate a devastating, unspoken farewell. “I say, maybe, I think, you’ll need to try,” Robbie delicately says toward the end of these lines, in response to Hall’s Steenbeck not knowing what to do with his new responsibilities.
There are no easy answers for how to cope with loss or parenthood in these lines. Just empathy. And the reminder that this abruptly cut-off relationship was still beautiful. Those nine final words are a glorious spiritual successor to “I’ve had a rough year, Dad.” from Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums. No sudden emotional epiphanies. Solutions are elusive. There’s just raw vulnerability between human beings. That’s a quality Robbie perfectly communicates with her masterful balance of subdued physicality and richly human vocal deliveries.
One Facial Expression Can Change Everything
The final line of Robbie’s monologue (“I hope it comes out”) inspires the first tight close-up of the character as she stares straight into the camera. Robbie’s gift for impactful facial acting means that just the soulfulness of her eyes makes this image moving. There’s also, though, the great detail that her character is adorned (both in clothes and hairstyle) to look like she’s from the Elizabethan era. This accentuates the dreamlike nature of this sequence, a facet complemented by the twinkling piano keys in Alexandre Desplat’s accompanying score and even the soft snowflakes falling down in this scene’s final seconds.
This speaks to how Robbie exudes a quiet, ethereal aura perfectly fitting within a scene so heavily departing from Asteroid City’s conventional backdrops. For the first time in the monochromatic “real world” scenes, viewers are brought outside. Finally being outside in the elements is a striking difference from previous sequences predicated on simulacra of train cars or isolated cabins. Adorning Robbie in intentionally dissonant costuming, not to mention the performer’s heavenly ambiance, amplifies this critical Asteroid City sequence’s distinctiveness.
That quality is also accentuated through the meta-quality of Margot Robbie not being a part of Wes Anderson’s regular troupe of actors. Hall unexpectedly stumbling onto this woman is a clever echoing of the audience also being surprised to see a first-time Anderson actor like Robbie. Plus, because her specific screen presence and acting talents haven’t been utilized elsewhere in the director’s filmography, Robbie’s Asteroid City screentime resonates as extra special. We’re all very familiar with what a Bill Murray turn under Anderson’s eye looks like. Robbie, within this filmmaker’s specific aesthetic, is a whole other kettle of unprecedented fish.
“I Hope It Comes Out.”
Cinema would be blessed if Robbie became a regular in Anderson’s oeuvre from now on (like fellow Anderson newcomer and Asteroid City cast member Tom Hanks returning for The Phoenician Scheme). If she joins Gene Hackman and George Clooney in the pantheon of one-off Anderson actors, though, she’s left an extraordinary impression. Most impressively, Robbie’s Asteroid City performance is an unforgettable microcosm of the creative paradoxes underscoring this director’s entire world. Wes Anderson movies are all about fanciful visuals combined with raw emotions.
These masterpieces focus on stop-motion animals that don’t move or look real, yet grapple with all too relatable emotions. They chronicle lavish hotels that look like dollhouses…and also how we keep people alive long after they’ve perished. “Wacky” families involving matching tracksuits and Ben Stiller are vessels to explore mental health issues and domestic turmoil. The imagery is maximalist, but the themes and pathos are intimate and raw.
Similarly, Robbie’s Asteroid City performance is a paradox that shouldn’t work. She’s barely moving yet communicating such powerful emotions in her voice. The camera largely keeps audiences so far away from her. However, the warmth and intimacy in Robbie’s line deliveries makes it feel like she’s right over your shoulder, murmuring these words solely to you. She’s barely in the movie, yet Margot Robbie scores one of Asteroid City’s greatest performances (and one of the best turns in any Anderson movie).
Life is full of messy, terrifying, and beautiful contradictions. Wes Anderson’s masterpieces let people process those dichotomies in such memorable ways, especially when his visions are handled by actors of Margot Robbie’s caliber.
