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Damien Chazelle made Margot Robbie try ’31 different accents’ for Babylon role

The Australian star plays aspiring actress Nellie LaRoy in the La La Land filmmaker’s new period drama.

Damien Chazelle made Margot Robbie experiment with “31 different accents” for her part in Babylon.

The Australian star plays aspiring actress Nellie LaRoy in the La La Land filmmaker’s new period drama, which chronicles the rise and fall of various figures during the transition from silent to sound films in Hollywood in the late 1920s.

Reflecting on the process of getting into character while speaking to HeyUGuys, Margot revealed that Damien was “incredibly specific” when it came to selecting the right accent for her to use.

“He’s just a perfect director. He would let us go completely loose; improvise, go crazy, whatever. And then other things, he was incredibly specific and meticulous on. His preparation is ridiculous. He made me do 31 different accents before deciding which one. He is thorough. Good enough is never enough for Damien,” she shared.

Despite Damien’s attention to detail, Margot insisted she had a lot of fun shooting the movie. In particular, she recalled how she lost her voice laughing after filming a memorable scene in which Nellie is required to shoot her first-ever talkie scene.

“It’s right in the middle of the movie. And it’s the most hilarious,” the 32-year-old said of the sequence. “I remember reading it in the script and just cackling out loud. It was so fun to shoot it. None of us had a voice by the end of the day. We screamed so, so much that we all lost our voices.”

Babylon, also starring Brad Pitt, Diego Calva, and Jean Smart, is now showing in cinemas.

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