Trivia / I, Tonya

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• Ability over Appearance: Margot Robbie is five inches taller than Tonya Harding.
• Approval of God: The real Tonya Harding was extremely forthcoming about her life story and gave a two-day interview to screenwriter Steven Rogers. She also approved of the finished film and when it came to the "suck my dick" scene - she said she wished she had said it in real life.
• California Doubling: The film, despite being set primarily in Portland, Oregon, was shot in Atlanta and Macon, Georgia. More specifically, the arena scenes were shot in the Macon Coliseum.
• Dawson Casting: Margot Robbie (twenty-six years old at the time of filming) and Sebastian Stan (thirty-four) play Tonya and Jeff when they were first dating, which happened when they were fifteen and eighteen, respectively.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Margot Robbie underwent figure skating training under the coaching of renowned figure skating choreographer Sarah Kawahara, whom also trained Nancy Kerrigan in 1995.
• Fake American:
  • Australian Margot Robbie plays the figure skater Tonya Harding.
  • Skating coach Dody Teachman is played by Serbian-Australian Bojana Novakovic.
• Never Work with Children or Animals: Not being a "bird" person in particular, Allison Janney had some difficulty adapting to having one perched on her shoulder for so many of her scenes. The production had to "audition" three different birds before settling on one they nicknamed "Little Man," the least hyperactive of the lot.
• Produced by Cast Member: Besides playing Tonya Harding, Margot Robbie was one of the producers.
• Reality Subtext:
  • Allison Janney herself had trained to be a figure skater in her youth.
  • Margot Robbie was choreographed by Sarah Kawahara - the same woman who had choreographed Nancy Kerrigan.
• Real Life Writes the Hairstyle: To prevent damaging her hair, Margot Robbie wore wigs as Tonya Harding. Ironically, the hair team used beer to achieve the "crunchy" permed look when regular hair products did not produce the desired result.
• Star-Making Role: Paul Walter Hauser became an in-demand character actor after his supporting role in this film.

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