Margot Robbie has gone wild.
The “Babylon” star revealed Monday while appearing on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” that she often uses members of the animal kingdom as inspiration for the roles she takes.
“It’s a thing. I didn’t go to drama school, so I don’t know if this is something that everyone does in drama school,” the 32-year-old actor told host Kelly Clarkson. “It’s something I actually started doing when I was on ‘I, Tonya.’ So that was the first time.”
While preparing to play the disgraced figure skater, Tonya Harding, Robbie revealed that she turned to a pitbull for help.
“I was a pitbull because they’re very misunderstood,” she explained.
“With her ice skates on, I wanted to be heavy on the feet … I wanted the character to feel like the world was bearing down on her all the time,” continued Robbie, who won a Critics Choice Award as Best Actress for the role. “But then, on the ice, she’s a mustang, like a wild horse when she’s ice skating. So she’s two animals, really.”
Robbie’s animal instincts helped in her latest flick, in which her character — which she said was influenced by an octopus and a honey badger — faces off against a rattlesnake.
“The snake fight scene? That’s all honey badger,” Robbie stated. “There are actual videos of honey badgers fighting snakes. There’s videos of honey badgers, which aren’t huge animals, fighting lions. And they have really thick skin. [Nellie] fights anything and anyone at the drop of a hat.”
Despite the quirky approach, Robbie told Clarkson it helps her stay grounded in the role.
Robbie continued, “It’s helpful because you do all this research, and you read all these books and watch all these films, and get all the facts about the real-life people at this time. Sometimes your head gets so clouded with statistics and facts and the history. But if you just revert back to the animal, then you can just be really, really instinctual.”
“La La Land” director Damien Chazelle returns with “Babylon,” now in theaters, starring Robbie, Brad Pitt, Jean Smart, Tobey Maguire and Olivia Wilde.
Robbie’s highly-anticipated turn as Barbie in Greta Gerwig’s upcoming satire premieres later this year.