Margot Robbie’s been well on her way in Hollywood ever since she landed the role in The Wolf of Wall Street. Before her Wolf and Barbie success, and before her viral feet took Hollywood by storm, she was just another struggling actress. At the time, she says her mom bailed her out on several occasions, and she never forgot. She admitted she kept a scrap of paper tallying her debts, but she paid back her mom in a big way a few years later.
In 2013, after Robbie had landed the gig in Martin Scorsese’s popular Leonardo Dicaprio-led drama, her mother lived in a $490,000 home in Southport, Australia. The mortgage was not paid off at that point, but Robbie had kept tabs on how much she owed her mother.
After making over $360k for filming Wolf of Wall Street, on her mother's 60th birthday, she paid off the leftover sum. Her mom told News.AU she’d paid her back plus some, and it was the” best” birthday ever. (Though I'd be willing to bet Robbie's own best birthday may have been her 24-hour party.)
Robbie herself later confirmed the story, and it’s the type of tale that will certainly have you in your feels this holiday season. What she said?
I have that piece of paper still. I kept it. Yeah, everything I owed my mom, I had it written down. She’d take money out of, like, the house mortgage to lend me money. So I always knew, ‘God I gotta pay that back.’ Then, one day, when I made enough money, I just paid that whole mortgage off completely.
Paying off your mom’s house isn’t exactly the most novel way to help out the mother who supported you unconditionally for years. Lots of athletes have paid off houses or even bought houses for their parents. WNBA star Angel Reese notably paid off her mom’s mortgage earlier this year. Last year, NFL rookie Malik Nabers bought his mom a house. So, it’s not uncommon for people coming into large sums of money – like sports stars and actors – to give their parents a leg up.
Though it may be a bit of a trope, it’s still a deeply kind and thoughtful thing to do. That's even more true once you know Robbie earned far less than the millions sports hires often earn for her role in Wolf, though it's worth noting years later she would pull in more than $50 million for Barbie. When asked about it in an interview with CBS, however, Robbie sort of shook off the notion that she did anything super special. Her modest take?
I was like, ‘Mom, don’t even worry about that mortgage anymore. It doesn’t exist anymore.’ Honestly, anyone in that position, you’d do that for your mom. Of course you would.
To her mom, though, it obviously was anything but. After the news leaked, Sarie Kessler admitted she was tickled by the whole thing, and she was so proud of her daughter.
I am immensely proud of her. She is a fine young woman and she is directly focused and she sets goals and achieves them. I’m just so proud — we all are. It was definitely the best birthday ever.
This was more than a decade ago, and there was so much ahead of her daughter. Though I'd be willing to bet roles like Harley Quinn and the behemoth Barbie never crossed her mom's mind. But if this story hasn't made you feel all cozy this holiday season, I'll give up my leg lamp.
