Margot Robbie has said she was able to “completely” pay off her mother’s mortgage once she made “enough money” following her breakout role.
In 2013, the Australian actor, 33, starred in Martin Scorsese’s crime drama The Wolf of Wall Street opposite Leonardo DiCaprio. It was Robbie’s portrayal of Naomi Lapaglia, the wife of real-life stock market scammer and manipulator Jordan Belfort, that shot her to fame.
According to News.com.au, Robbie paid off her mum Sarie Kessler’s entire mortgage for her 60th birthday one year after the film.
“She’d take money out of the house mortgage, lend me money, so I always knew I got to pay that back,” the Barbie star said on the latest episode of CBS’s Sunday Morning.
“And then one day, when I made enough money, I just paid that whole mortgage off completely. I was like, ‘Mum, don’t even worry about that mortgage anymore. It doesn’t even exist anymore.’
“Everything I owed my mum, I had it written down,” Robbie continued, adding that she “kept” that piece of paper. “Honestly, anyone in my position... you’d do that for your mum,” she said.
Robbie’s previously spoken about her mother coming to her aid when she experienced one of her “lowest moments” after her Wolf of Wall Street fame. She was only 23 at the time.
Margot Robbie and her mother Sarie Kessler (L)— (AFP via Getty Images)
“Something was happening in those early stages and it was all pretty awful, and I remember saying to my mum, ‘I don’t think I want to do this,’” the actor recalled in a 2022 interview with Vanity Fair.
“And she just looked at me, completely straight-faced, and was like, ‘Darling, I think it’s too late not to.’ That’s when I realised the only way was forward.”
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Robbie can currently be seen leading Greta Gerwig’s critical and box office hit, Barbie, as the popular Mattel doll who ventures into the real world to find her life’s purpose.
Since its release, the movie has been lauded by critics, with The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey calling it a “near-miraculous achievement” in her five-star review.
It’s already on track to be the biggest release of the year, earning $337m (£288.3m) at the global box office in its first weekend.
Barbie is out in cinemas now.
