NEON(NEW YORK) — Opening in limited release this weekend is I, Tonya, a dark comedy that tracks the rise and fall of disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding.
Margot Robbie is earning raves for her performance as the champion athlete, whose promising career was famously cut short when her ex-husband, Jeff Gilloolly, and her bodyguard hatched a plot to try to eliminate her rival, Nancy Kerrigan, with a blow to her knee with a metal pipe.
The attacks took place weeks before the 1994 Olympic Winter Games, in Harding and Kerrigan both competed. Kerrigan took the silver while Harding placed eighth, tearfully blaming an untied shoelace for her poor showing.
Harding was implicated in but never convicted for the attack. However, she was fined and banned from pro skating for life after pleading guilty to hindering prosecution in the case.
The story “took the media by storm,” says Sebastian Stan, who plays Gillooly in I, Tonya. “And then right after that, you had O.J.!. From 1990 to 1995, you had, I think Waco, L.A., the riots in 1992, then you had the Menendez brothers — it was just hit after hit after hit of crazy stuff!”
Of I, Tonya, Stan raves, “Margot’s phenomenal,” adding Alison Janney, who plays Tonya’s cold, chain-smoking mom, “was inspiring every day she was on she set.”
Stan had one gripe: living with Gilloolly’s 90’s-era look: “[The] mustache was a tough one. Mustache and no sideburns. Don’t forget that, like, high, high like, side cut above the ear…like Supercuts line,” he laughs. “Try ordering a coffee with that — you’ll get a good response!”
Kidding aside, Stan is proud of the early reaction to the I, Tonya. “We’re just excited that people…want to see it. That’s what we want.”
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