Margot Robbie says make up for Mary Queen of Scots movie made her 'lonely and alienated'

Margot Robbie as Elizabeth I (Credit: Focus Features)
Margot Robbie as Elizabeth I (Credit: Focus Features)

Margot Robbie has said that the extensive make-up she wore for her shocking transformation into Elizabeth I left her feeling ‘lonely and alienated’.

The 28-year-old Australian star plays the monarch opposite Saoirse Ronan in director Josie Rourke’s forthcoming Mary Queen of Scots.

But such was the extent of the make-up, she found that people began to treat her differently.

“I’d say, ‘Hey, how’s your weekend?’” she told Harper’s Bazaar. “But they wouldn’t even get close to me.

“It was very alienating. And I felt very lonely. It was an interesting social experiment.”

(Credit: Rex/Shutterstock)
(Credit: Rex/Shutterstock)

Pictures of Robbie as Elizabeth quickly went viral when they emerged earlier this year, with the actress appearing on set pale and scarred from the smallpox the Queen survived as a child.

She goes on to say that the transformation took three and a half hours every day.

“They’d start with a head wrap, gelling and pinning my hair down. Then we’d do a bald cap. Surprisingly, the quick part was the white makeup.”

The film is based on John Guy’s biography Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart and has been adapted by House of Cards writer Beau Willimon.

It also stars David Tenant of John Knox, Jack Lowden as Lord Darnley, Gemma Chan as Elizabeth Hardwick, and Guy Pearce as William Cecil.

It’s due out in the UK on January 18.

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