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While the likes of Jennifer Lawrence and Phoebe Waller-Bridge swear they don’t use social media, many a celebrity has been caught using secret accounts which are followed only by their friends and which are almost definitely used to read memes, stalk other celebrities and watch cat videos.
There’s Lorde’s now-defunct Instagram which was dedicated solely to rating onion rings from various locations around the world until she was unearthed by Jimmy Fallon, and Gigi Hadid’s for sharing her candid film photos with friends. Then you have Justin Bieber’s Coachella-specific ‘gram created just for music festival pics and Sophie Turner’s for sausages.
But Margot Robbie’s secret Twitter served a purpose other than fast food and film: that of stalking conservatives.
The 29-year-old actress revealed that for her role in Bombshell, in which she plays fictional Fox News anchor, Kayla Pospisil, she researched by starting a fake Twitter account and following right-wing women who would have similar beliefs to that of her character.
“I didn’t grow up watching Fox News, and I didn’t grow up in the same place as [Kayla]”, Robbie told Entertainment Weekly. “I was struggling to understand that point of view for a while, and Twitter ended up being the most useful tool,” she explained. “Because people are extremely vocal on Twitter.”
“The homework part was difficult,” she continued. “But the emotional side was difficult in a different kind of way.”
Nicole Kidman and Charlize Theron, Robbie’s co-stars in the upcoming film, both play real women – former Fox News journalists Gretchen Carlson and Megyn Kelly, who accused Roger Ailes (played by John Lithgow) of sexual harassment. A case which eventually led to him exiting the media company in 2016.
Robbie’s character, however, was created out of numerous different women’s stories from Fox News. “Kayla is an amalgamation of many women’s stories, and some of the specifics you see in scenes with her are taken from real-life interactions those women experienced,” she explained.
Speaking about the impact of the film in regards to workplace sexual harassment, Robbie previously said she is happy the content is resonating with so many men. “I really wasn’t expecting it to hit home so closely with a lot of men, which has been amazing, really amazing.”
“Sexual harassment isn’t an issue for women to solve. It’s something we all have to solve together,” she told Variety. “I can only imagine every guy out there has a daughter, a wife, a mother, a friend, a girlfriend. They don’t want them to exist in a world where they might not be able to go to work, can be safe. No one wants that. … We’ll solve it together. I hope.”
Feature image credit: Max Doyle / Harper’s Bazaar Australia
