Margot Robbie is the producer and star of the biggest movie of the year, but there also exists an alternate timeline where she spent her summer playing a sort of blind cyclops in a polyamorous relationship with conjoined twins played by Evan Peters and Finn Wittrock. Yes, years ago, shortly after she arrived in Hollywood, Robbie auditioned for a part in Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story, but ultimately didn’t get the role. As much as we might have liked to see Robbie share the screen with the likes of Jessica Lange and Sarah Paulson, maybe fate played out as it should have in this case.
The revelation comes from casting director Eric Dawson on a recent episode of Backstage’s “In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast.” Dawson says Robbie auditioned for the anthology series’s second season, Asylum, which aired in 2012. That checks out—Robbie moved to America from her native Australia in 2011, but didn’t land her star-making role until 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street.
“Margot is probably one of my favorite auditions of all time, and it was right before she broke out,” Dawson said. “She was such a star. It was crazy, her star appeal when she walked in the room. Even though she didn’t get that role, that was one of those things as a casting director where you go: This is a star, what do we do with her?”
Dawson, however, did not clarify what role Robbie audition for in Asylum. That season included Chloë Sevigny’s nymphomaniac character Shelley, Lily Rabe’s twisted Sister Mary Eunice McKee, and Lizzie Brocheré’s tragic Grace. There’s also the possibility Robbie could have been up for the character of Teresa, the wife of Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine’s character’s wife.
Dawson also doesn’t clarify exactly why Robbie didn’t get the part, only saying, “immediately, though, she was out of our realm of possibility of hiring.” Perhaps it’s because Robbie was already in the process of booking Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street instead? Filming for Asylum began in mid-July of 2012, while Wall Street started filming that August. It likely wouldn’t have been possible for the actress to work on both projects.
It all worked out for Robbie’s career in the end. Given Murphy’s tendency to work with actors repeatedly, however, there is another theoretical timeline in the mix: one where Robbie went on to play a witch in Coven, a bearded lady in Freak Show, and even the role of Sharon Tate in AHS: Cult instead of Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. And if there ever is a Barbie sequel, we wouldn’t mind if Robbie called on AHS vets like Paulson and Lange to audition.
