Lace up those skates! Margot Robbie has been cast as disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding in the upcoming movie I, Tonya, Entertainment Weekly reports. A rep for Steven Rogers, the film’s screenwriter, confirmed the news.
The Suicide Squad actress, 25, will shine a light on the the Olympian’s connection to the 1994 attack on teammate Nancy Kerrigan. In what remains one of the biggest scandals in sports history, Harding’s then husband, Jeff Gillooly, hired a hit man to hurt Kerrigan ahead of the Winter Olympic Games in January 1994. The man struck Kerrigan with a metal rod, and the aftermath was caught on camera, which showed Kerrigan holding her leg and crying out, “Why me?!”
Harding and Gillooly later pleaded guilty for their involvement in the incident. Harding was also banned for life from competing, and her 1994 national title was taken away. Harding went on to make her pro boxing debut in 2003. She and Gillooly also sold a sex tape to Penthouse.
Kerrigan, 46, opened up about the assault during an interview with USA Today Sports in January 2014. “I really don’t look back unless someone asks me to look back, and then I have to. Otherwise, why would I? I was attacked,” she said.
Harding, 45, also looked back. “It was 20 years ago and I don’t remember lots and lots of it,” she told USA Today. “I know it was a horrible time for everyone involved. It was a bad streak, going through all the crud, and I was able to rise above it. I think Nancy and I have good lives now.”
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