Watch Margot Robbie as shamed figure skater Tonya Harding in I, Tonya teaser

Margot Robbie hits the ice in this first look at forthcoming biopic ‘I, Tonya’.

She plays the shamed figure skater Tonya Harding who became a national hate figure in the US in 1994, following a scandal which shook the US sports world.

Harding, her husband and her bodyguard were found guilty of hiring another man to attack rival figure skater Nancy Kerrigan and break her leg, so that she wouldn’t be able to compete in the Olympics at Lillehammer.

But the plan backfired, and Harding was banned for life from U.S. Figure Skating Association, narrowly avoiding jail time.

Also starring Sebastian Stan, Allison Janney, and Caitlin Carver as Kerrigan, the movie was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September to rave reviews.

The film is framed as a fake documentary with the characters being interviewed 20 years after the events. Variety critic Owen Gleiberman singled out ‘Suicide Squad’ star Margot Robbie’s “canny, live-wire, deeply sympathetic performance” as one of the film’s highlights, calling the whole thing “a blast”.

Indiewire’s David Ehrlich called Harding, “the lead role of a lifetime” for Robbie, reserving praise for Alison Janney’s performance as the ice skater’s controlling mother LaVona, who he describes as “part showbiz mom and part dictator.”

The film sounds like a return to form for director Craig Gillespie who brought us ‘Mr Woodcock’ and ‘Lars and The Real Girl’, but more recently helmed Disney duds ‘The Finest Hours’ and ‘The Million Dollar Arm’.

Margot Robbie can also be seen in ‘Goodbye Christopher Robin’, the moving new AA Milne biopic about the creation of Winnie The Pooh.

‘I, Tonya’ will be released in the UK on February 16, 2018.

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