Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Tuesday 12 december 2017
‘I, Tonya’ reclaims Harding’s

narrative in provocative film

By LINDSEY BAHR Craig Gillespie, the man Jeff. Those are the relation-
AP Film Writer who got the job, said it had ships that really shape her
LOS ANGELES (AP) — to be brutal. as a person.”
Screenwriter Steven Rogers “It didn’t sit right with me, Allison Janney had the
was watching a documen- the idea of covering it up complicated task of bring-
tary about the disgraced and making it seem not ing her mother, LaVona, to
figure skater Tonya Harding that bad. I felt that would life. She’s the person who
not too long ago and think- be a great disservice to put Harding on the ice,
ing about big ideas of class anyone who’s suffered that funded her training and
In this Dec. 5, 2017 photo, actress Margot Robbie, a cast and abuse and the media before. Also to leave it out sewed her costumes with
member in the film “I, Tonya,” poses for a portrait at The and truth that were all tied completely felt wrong,” the little money she had,
Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles. Associated Press up in her story. Robbie said. “But Craig al- but who also physically
The media at the time, he ways finds the truth in the and verbally abused her
said, took that bizarre in- situation.” daughter. Harding appar-
cident which entangled They decided on an un- ently told Rogers that she
Harding in a conspiracy conventional approach didn’t even know whether
around the 1994 assault of of breaking the fourth wall her mother was dead or
fellow skater Nancy Ker- having Harding speak di- alive and that she also
rigan, and pitted the two rectly to the camera as didn’t care. (She is alive;
against each other. Kerri- she’s being beaten as a “Inside Edition” recently in-
gan was the princess. Har- way to illustrate her emo- terviewed her).
ding was the trash. Even he tional disconnect. It’s Thus all Janney had was
remembers thinking that something that some audi- documentary footage of
Harding had done it for at- ences have bristled at and LaVona, which she studied
tention. others applaud. Some crit- as best she could before
So he decided to see if her ics have even compared disappearing behind the
life rights were even avail- the resulting tone to Martin hair and makeup.
able, and called the num- Scorsese’s “Goodfellas.” “It’s liberating to play a
ber for her agent listed on Like Harding, “I, Tonya” is character like this and
her website. It went to a defiantly itself. have such a transforma-
Motel 6. Robbie trained and stud- tion,” Janney said. “She’s
“I thought: I am so in,” Rog- ied for six months to get this quirky, odd woman
ers said. Harding down, both in her with so much anger and
And with little more than athletic figure skating style so much resentment. My
that seed of an idea, Rog- and also her dialect and heart broke a little for her
ers tracked down both Har- physicality. The resulting watching these interviews
ding and her ex-husband sequences on the ice are because you can see un-
Jeff Gillooly and used their a complex but seamless derneath the denial of
wildly contradictory ac- combination of Robbie the hurt that’s there. It was
counts of that moment of and two skating doubles. a pretty harsh and hard
infamy, and their lives lead- She met her subject later. and complicated mother-
ing up to it, to develop the “That wasn’t research. I daughter relationship.”
screenplay that would be- didn’t meet her because The Gillooly part provided
come “I, Tonya,” a bold there were pieces of the similar moral conundrums
reevaluation of one of the puzzle missing. I had al- for actor Sebastian Stan.
soapiest tabloid scandals ready decided how I was “I was so intrigued by the
of the last century and going to play this char- story. I was slightly ob-
the most audacious film acter. I knew every single sessed,” Stan said. “When
of the season. It’s playing beat and how I would play you’re going to play some-
now in limited release and it,” Robbie said. “Meeting one you have to put all
expanding in the coming her for me was helpful as judgments aside. You have
weeks. a person, not as an actor. to remove your own per-
Australian actress Margot I just wanted to know if she ceptions about them and
Robbie came aboard not was OK.” find something to hook on
only to star as Harding, from One person who is largely to. As complicated and
ages 15-44, but produce as absent from the story is as contradictory as both
well. Kerrigan. It wasn’t an over- describe their relationship,
“This movie would not have sight. there was a love there at
survived the studio system,” “I hate when scripts, film, one point, there was a
Robbie said. TV, the news pit women connection. Margot and I
There is domestic violence, against each other. If this talked about approaching
from both Harding’s moth- script was called ‘Tonya v it as a love story that is cra-
er and ex-husband, tonal Nancy’ I don’t think I would zy and twisted and insane
shifts, conflicting narratives be part of it,” Robbie said. and that’s just their life.”
and no real resolution or “Since this was about Harding apparently told
answers. Tonya Harding, the most Stan he was too handsome
Robbie asked many po- important people and re- to play Gillooly, which just
tential directors how they lationships in her life were makes him laugh.q
would handle the violence. with her mother and with