Margot Robbie’s portrayal of competitive and controversial ice skater Tonya Harding in the film I, Tonya (2017) is a great example of how language can function within a film to expand our understanding of a character. Robbie was fortuitous enough to have access to real archives of Harding’s interview pieces and Harding herself to use as points of referral. In the film, the actor blends Harding’s vocal ideocracies with some of her own characterisation choices to achieve a sense of fidelity to Harding and the filmmaker’s perception of Harding’s characterisation.
In the scene above, Robbie is using a deeper vocal pitch with raspy timbre and resonant sound. This only shifts in the film when she is portraying a younger Harding or in some cases where the character is vulnerable. The rhythm of her dialogue is very syncopated, she’ll often stop mid-sentence for an unusual pause. The character’s slower and interrupted speech might lead an audience to interpret Harding as feeble minded and unreliable. Contrary to this, the character articulates dialogue very clearly, leading us to consider that Harding in fact wants to be heard and understood. Here when Tonya says “They did it to take me down! I mean, it’s just hear-say I can’t prove it but… how bad was she hurt?” (I, Tonya 2017). In the first sentence her voice is loud, clear, firm, and defensive, then it becomes quieter, suspended, and aloof and finally, soft, mumbled, and enigmatic. These transitions are representative of the varied aspects of Tonya’s characterisation and reveal some of her feelings and opinions to the audience.
Accent is an important component of Robbie’s portrayal of Harding. Robbie’s natural accent is Australian and therefore she needed to manufacture an American accent to characterise Tonya accurately. Interestingly there is also a pacific-north western quality weaved into the dialect of the performance. Tonya says, “In one of our tours in ninety three” (I, Tonya 2017). Her pronunciation of the word ‘tour’ phonetically and linguistically rings true to Harding’s accent which does not sound like a neutral, standard American accent. This regionalism is often connected in film with low-socio economic communities.
Other than her brash swearing and occasional mumbling, Tonya often prefaces her dialogue with filer works such as ‘well’ or ‘umm’. She also has no problem speaking while eating, smoking, or chewing gum. Her dialogue often does not compliment her delivery. For example, in one scene with Harry (Tonya’s boyfriend) she says to him “You are an F***ing idiot” (I, Tonya 2017), but says it with a playful and flirtatious inflection. All these characteristics contribute to a viewer’s perception of Tonya. One analysis could be that her impolite behaviours, the lack of fluency in her sentences and contradictory word to intention relationship might develop her as bad mannered and uneducated. An alternative reading might suggest there is a complexity behind this character that elevates how the audience might sympathise with her throughout the film.
Elements of Robbie’s performance paired with the choice dialogue set out by script writers, does not necessarily mirror Harding’s characterisation it does, however, adapt her traits into a new version of Tonya. The Vocal enactment in Robbie’s performance, helps the audience to empathise a little more with Harding’s bad behaviour. She is not constructed as a figure of privilege or education and therefore the audience might be more forgiving of Tonya’s character.
References:
I, Tonya 2017, DVD, 30WEST, New York, NY, USA, directed by Craig Gillespie.