--- title: Margot Robbie on Meeting Tonya Harding for I Tonya description: The figure skater had some kind words for the star who is portraying her in the film "I, Tonya" canonical: https://time.com/5039499/margot-robbie-tonya-harding/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-28T18:32:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:48:56.952Z og:title: Here’s What Happened When Margot Robbie Met Tonya Harding og:description: The figure skater had kind words for the star who is playing her in "I, Tonya" og:url: https://time.com/5039499/margot-robbie-tonya-harding/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt158983a730a2f84e/6988e6514ee262de7f30fd46/tonya-harding-i-tonya.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: tonya-harding-i-tonya og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here’s What Happened When Margot Robbie Met Tonya Harding twitter:description: The figure skater had kind words for the star who is playing her in "I, Tonya" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt158983a730a2f84e/6988e6514ee262de7f30fd46/tonya-harding-i-tonya.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here’s What Happened When Margot Robbie Met Tonya Harding by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Nov 28, 2017 6:32 PM UTC  Courtesy of NEON by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Nov 28, 2017 6:32 PM UTC Margot Robbie has revealed what happened when she met Tonya Harding. Robbie and Jake Gyllenhaal interviewed each other about their upcoming films as part of [_Variety_’s “Actors on Actors”](http://variety.com/2017/film/news/margot-robbie-jake-gyllenhaal-i-tonya-stronger-1202622197/) series. Gyllenhaal, who stars in the forthcoming Boston marathon movie _Stronger_, asked Robbie about Harding in the [new film ](http://time.com/4989804/margot-robbie-tonya-harding-movie-trailer/)[_I, Tonya_](http://time.com/4989804/margot-robbie-tonya-harding-movie-trailer/)_,_ which looks at the skater’s rise and fall from grace, after [she plead guilty](http://www.oregonlive.com/tonya-harding/2014/01/tonya%5Fharding-nancy%5Fkerrigan%5Fh.html) to hindering the investigation into an [attack on her skating rival](http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2014/01/06/tonya-harding-says-attack-on-nancy-kerrigan-knee-capped-her-career/?iid=sr-link6), Nancy Kerrigan. While Harding is once again in the spotlight, it turns out that she is more concerned about Robbie’s emotional well-being. “Something \[[Tonya](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,980130,00.html?iid=sr-link7)\] asked me about when we met, she said, ‘How are you dealing with fame and being famous?’,” Robbie said. “And actually, it was very kind of her to ask. Because to be honest, her situation was horrible, and it happened to her so young, and I think what made the biggest difference in the world was she didn’t have a support network around her. And I do, and I’m so lucky.” Robbie mines Harding’s side of the story, including her lack of a support system, in the antihero film in theaters now. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5039499/margot-robbie-tonya-harding/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5039499/margot-robbie-tonya-harding/"},"headline":"Here’s What Happened When Margot Robbie Met Tonya Harding","datePublished":"2017-11-28T18:32:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:48:56.952Z","description":"The figure skater had some kind words for the star who is portraying her in the film \"I, Tonya\"","url":"https://time.com/5039499/margot-robbie-tonya-harding/","keywords":["Newsfeed","movies","Jake Gyllenhaal","margot robbie"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt158983a730a2f84e/6988e6514ee262de7f30fd46/tonya-harding-i-tonya.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt158983a730a2f84e/6988e6514ee262de7f30fd46/tonya-harding-i-tonya.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"tonya-harding-i-tonya","caption":"","creditText":"Courtesy of NEON","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5039499/margot-robbie-tonya-harding/","name":"Here’s What Happened When Margot Robbie Met Tonya Harding"}}]}] ```