Celebrity Hockey Fan Talks Hockey

If you need a break from hockey tonight, you likely can fill some time by watching a movie. A lot of movie stars are hockey fans - Will Ferrell goes to Kings games, for example - but one of the biggest hockey fans is actress Margot Robbie! Yes, the actress born in Dalby, Australia and who has starred in blockbusters like Suicide Squad, The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Legend of Tarzan is a regular at New York Rangers games when she's not filming. As you can see, she's got her own Henrik Lundqvist jersey that she wears, so we can rightfully count her in as a celebrity hockey fan.

This clip is a couple of years old, but here's Margot Robbie talking about hockey on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and there are a couple of interesting tidbits that one should catch from the chat.

Ok, pushing aside the Rangers fan stuff and the Mighty Ducks stuff for a second, did you catch the moment where she said she played hockey for a short time after arriving in America? According to a 2014 interview in Vulture by Amanda Dobbs, she plays right wing!

Back to her being an NHL fan, she apparently had seen the Mighty Ducks movies in Australia, and her love of the Rangers came organically according to what she told MTV.com. Miss Robbie explained,

"Well, I always wanted to play ice hockey back in Australia. I'm not sure why, but we didn't have any ice where I lived. It was very hot, a coastal town. So, I played field hockey. But then when I moved to America, I was finally able to join a team once I wasn't contracted to a show. When I was contracted to a show, I wasn't able to play. I was living in New York, and the Rangers were my default team. They're the best team ever."

In a number of interviews, Margot explained that she wasn't a great skater and likely the most terrible player on the team. Funnily enough, one of her recent roles was as Tonya Harding in the film I, Tonya. Being that she's not a great skater, she told W magazine's Jane Larkworthy,

"Well, funnily enough, I am training at the moment to be Tonya Harding, so I'm learning how to figure skate. And they're like, 'So, you're going to be good right? Because you play ice hockey.' And I had to tell them I wasn't very good, plus hockey skates and figure skates are totally different. And now I realize as I'm trying to learn is, wow, I never really skated. I just ran around on the ice and just smashed into the barriers. I didn't really know how to stop; I'd just sprint. And now that I don't have all that padding on, it's terrifying so I have to be a lot more careful learning."

While she made it through the film fine in her skating scenes, perhaps Margot Robbie can push the envelope for little girls in her next role by combining her passion for hockey and her ability to portray an iconic doll. If you haven't heard, Robbie is slated to play Barbie in an upcoming live-action film about the doll, and we've already seen Laura Stacey recognized as a positive role model for young girls by Mattel in a recent Canadian campaign. Since Barbie has never actually donned hockey skates and thrown on a jersey in toy form, maybe Margot Robbie can get Mattel to put Barbie in some hockey gear?

While I doubt anything will happen on that front, no one can question Margot Robbie's love for hockey. If they ever do a story on some of the women playing today, Margot Robbie should be a leading candidate to star in that film!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!