I, Tonya

Em: 00:01:07

Hi everyone. I'm Em and welcome to verbal diorama, episode 293, I, Tonya.

This is the podcast that's all about the history and legacy of movies you know, and movies you don't. That is both a garden and a flower. Verbal Diorama is the garden and I'm a flower. Welcome to Verbal Diorama.

Whether you are a regular returning listener or a brand new listener to this podcast, thank you for being here. Thank you for choosing to listen to this podcast. As always, I am so delighted to have you here for the history and legacy of I, Tonya.

And if you are a regular returning listener, thank you so much for coming back to this podcast. And thank you for your continued support of this podcast. This podcast has been going for six years now and over 290 episodes.

It really genuinely does mean so much that you continue to come back and continue to listen to this podcast. And if you are a brand new listener, well, you've got a lot of catching up to do. That's all I can say.

I'm not saying you have to listen to every single episode, but there's a lot of amazing episodes out there that are ready in your podcast app for you to listen to right now. So this month on Verbal Diorama, it is Women's History Month. Well, it's Women's History Month just generally, but also on this podcast.

And I wanted to do episodes to celebrate women in movies from all walks of life, from warriors to queens to single mothers and to women in sport. Last week we had a single mother fighting for justice for an entire town.

And this week, one of the most famous, disgraced sports people of all time, but also someone who inexplicably changed the future of her sport forever bringing notoriety and fame to a sport that was never appreciated quite so much until the incident.

Women's History Month is obviously a month for us all to remember the stories of women who came before us, who inspire us and shape the world for women and girls today.

And as a woman in film podcasting, which is generally very male dominated as far as hosts go, I always feel like a bit of an anomaly in the film podcasting sphere. But I'm also inspired by other women. Women from all walks of life, from all cultures or religions or professions.

And so that's why I really wanted to focus on women in film. And not only women in Film for this month, but true Stories of women put to film. I, Tonya is the final episode of this month.

And genuinely, I hope you're enjoying hearing these stories as much as I'm enjoying researching and telling these stories.

Now, if you've listened to my previous episodes on the Woman King and Elizabeth, historical accuracy tends to differ when we talk about different biopics or historical dramas, but we've at least had reliable narrators in I, Tonya. The whole point is that everyone is unreliable.

But while the media in real life portrayed Tonya Harding as standoffish, gruff, and a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, this movie goes some way to humanize Tonya Harding, to show that talent supersedes social status and class. But in the world of competitive figure skating, you need all of them to succeed. Here's the trailer for I, Tonya.

Em: 00:06:56

Growing up in an abusive and poor family in Portland, Oregon, competitive figure skater Tonya Harding was never fully accepted in the figure skating community for not inherently being the image, grace, breeding and privilege that the community wanted to portray.

Despite being naturally gifted in the sport athletically, Harding became national champion, a World Championship medalist and an Olympian, and the first American woman to complete the Triple Axel in competition.

January: 1994

We have Margot Robbie as Tonya Harding, Sebastian Stan as Jeff Gillooly, Alison Janney as LaVonna Harding, Julianne Nicholson as Diane Rawlingson, Caitlin Carver as Nancy Kerrigan, Bijana Novakovic as Dodie Teachman, Paul, Walter Hauser as Shawn Eckhart, Bobby Cannavale as Martin Maddox and McKenna Grace as young Tonya I Tonya was written by Stephen Rogers and was directed by Craig Gillespie.

introduction occurring at the: 1908

hampionship level in the late: 1980

is winning lucrative. At the: 2011

Many have to have other jobs on the side, and so it makes the story of Tonya Harding even more remarkable.

Because Harding came From a poor working class background, neither of which were represented in ice skating because it was such an expensive sport to get into. Tonya Harding was figure skating's rebel. In a sport where women were supposed to be slim, dainty and graceful.

Harding was graceful on the ice, but she was also fierce, athletic, brash and not afraid to call out the sport or its body for its double standards and its classism. But on the ice, Harding was a talent, unafraid to push herself and change the standards associated with the sport.

y became a household name. In: 1991

l to hit US figure skating in: 1994

This undoubtedly led to the incident being reported on more than it would have otherwise been, and the crazy particulars surrounding Harding's ex husband, Jeff Gillooly, his friend Shawn Eckhart, and the two goons hired to assault Kerrigan, Shane Stant and Derek Smith. It became a media circus, with Harding at the center of the ring.

It also coincided with the inception of the 24 hour news cycle and the media fed the public its own narrative, with Harding as the villain and Kerrigan the damsel in distress. But it doesn't feel like the natural fit for a movie.

the Hit List and blacklist in: 2016

Harding's perspective of the: 1994

Harding understandably has issues trusting strangers, or indeed human beings in general, but they got on. She told him her side of the story and asked him if she would have any control over the script he was writing.

Rogers truthfully said no, but maybe having her side of the story out in the world was worth it. Rogers would end up pinky Promising that if she signed away her life rights, he would do his best by her.

Rogers wrote the script on spec so that he could maintain some control over the project and produce it himself outside the studio system. Over the three year process of bringing this story to the screen, Rogers says the trickiest aspect was securing Harding and Gillooly's life rights.

He reached out to Jeff Giannully, then going by Jeff Stone, who allegedly still feels guilty for orchestrating the string of events that resulted in the US Figure Skating association banning Harding for life. Gillooly had pleaded guilty to racketeering in the aftermath and was sentenced to two years in prison. And he didn't want any money for his rights.

Once Rogers had secured the life rights from both individuals, the screenwriter flew back to Oregon and interviewed Harding and Gillooly more intensely. And their stories were wildly different to each other's.

Rogers knew that this was the trick up his sleeve, the differing perspectives of two people and the contradictory stories.

This was going to be no conventional biopic, but a narrative that was unreliable, with characters breaking the fourth wall to explain what was going on. And it would also include Harding's mother, LaVonna, interrupting to criticise the screenplay.

By not including her story enough, Rogers would say there was only one subject on which Harding and Gillooly agreed. That LaVonna Harding was verbally and emotionally abusive to Tonya.

LaVonna Harding wasn't approached for interview, but Rodgers knew immediately who he wanted for the role. His friend, Alison Janney.

Rogers insisted on Janney playing the part, so much so that when he sold the script, that was a condition at the sale that Alison Janney must play Lavon Hardy. Rogers sent the script out to as many independent production companies as possible.

ap Entertainment, launched in: 2014

But at the time they got the script, neither Robbie nor Akerley knew who Tonya Harding was. Robbie thought the story was fictional.

It wasn't until she went down a Wikipedia rabbit hole that that she realized this was based on a crazy true story. Robbie didn't just want to produce the movie either. She wanted to star as Tonya Harding.

She'd starred opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in the Wolf of Wall street and in Suicide Squad as Harley Quinn. And Robbie wanted to do something different.

But it would need a physical transformation as well as the same drive that led Harding to do that infamous Triple Axel. Robbie was immediately drawn to Tonya Harding.

Upon learning it was based on real events, she became even more intrigued and saw it as an opportunity to portray a multidimensional female character.

And for Lucky Chap Entertainment I Tonya represented exactly the kind of project they wanted to champion, female driven stories with complex characters that might not otherwise get made in Hollywood. As a relatively new production company, they saw value in the unique script that larger studios might have considered too risky.

Robbie took on dual roles as both star and producer, helping to secure financing for the modestly budgeted film.

Director Craig Gillespie, known for Lars and the Real Girl, came on board and the team assembled the rest of the cast including Sebastian Stan and the must casting of Alice and Janney. For Sebastian Stan, his casting as Jeff Gillooly was miles from his most well known role of Bucky Barnes in Captain America.

You wouldn't necessarily equate the Winter Soldier stoicism with Jeff Gillooly's violent temper and mustache, but that's acting.

Costume designer Jennifer Johnson had a wealth of video and photographic reference to Harding's skating costumes, but she also wanted to be careful to not stray into caricature. Early 90s fashion was scrunchies, perms, garish colours, many of which came back into fashion recently.

But for the skating costumes, Johnson wanted to pay homage to the originals from the handmade costumes from the start of her career through to the professionally designed outfits at Lillehammer. Matching the outfit to the skating fixture was no mean feat though, and required hours spent combing through grainy home videos on YouTube.

These videos were often incorrectly labeled and additionally skaters would often repeat costumes.

Over the year, Johnson and her team intentionally created outfits that were poorly fitting and made with cheap and comfortable fabrics, reflecting on Harding's status as an outlier in the sport and definitely not one of those nice middle class girls like Nancy Kerrigan, who is seen in the pure virginal white lace costume she was attacked in.

Harding's bejeweled turquoise costume she wears for the Triple Axel was one of the few styles with which Johnson used a little creative license, adding a silver underlay to the knees of her skirt. It was intentionally made with single stretch jumbo spandex, which is really thick and awkward.

It was so real to life that Tonya Harding approached Johnson at the movie's afterparty and commented how authentic the costume looked.

Now, of course, if Margot Robbie was going to be playing Tonya Harding, Margot Robbie needed to know how to skate and luckily she had experience in ice hockey, so knew the basics of skating on ice, but she still spent three to four months in training and weeks specifically with choreographer Sara Kawahara on the ice.

started In Atlanta in January: 2017

Only five of those in Olympic programs, and any of them who were still able to do so were likely in training for the next Olympics and wouldn't be able to risk performing it for the movie. The first woman to successfully do a Triple Axel was Midori Ito.

ional competition in Japan in: 1988

Robbie did as much of her own skating as possible, with the routines in the movie almost shot for shot remakes of Harding's actual routines. Robbie suffered from a herniated disc in her neck, which occurs when all or part of the disc is forced through a weakened part of the spine.

It causes extreme pain when moving the neck, which can also be felt through the shoulder blades and arms.

Robbie couldn't afford to leave the project, so just got shot up with painkillers and had routine MRIs to ensure it was safe for her to continue filming skating scenes. The complex jumps were replicated by Robbie on a blue screen so they had the angle of her face.

They then digitally map her face over Markova's or Mungers.

For other shots like the Triple Axel, they created a digital face from scratch in conjunction with French company Isco and VFX Studio 8 VFX for the triple Axel, Robbie starts scouting for real and then a body double takes over, but with Robbie's face superimposed over.

The Triple Axel is also shown in the movie in extreme slow motion, giving viewers plenty of time to study the jump and show off how impressive a jump it actually is. They ended up blending three or four takes to get the best version.

They also set up six witness cameras around the ice rink so they could pinpoint the movements of the skating double Rebuilt all the stadiums in cg and because the budget wasn't there to fill stadiums with extras, they also repopulated stadiums with CG people so they could match exact backgrounds from shot to shot. AVFX produced 215 visual effects shots in just six months. Like most low budget movies, I Tonya had a quick turnaround.

It had a 31 day shoot with everyone pitching in to help.

There were often filming days where Margot Robbie and Sebastian Stan were playing teenagers in the morning, 20 somethings in the afternoon and 40 somethings in the evenings. There was one day where they had 20 setups in a single day.

nya wrapped filming in spring: 2017

Regal had the unenviable job of balancing the tone in the edit.

This is a movie that has to balance the comedy of the situation as well as the violence of domestic abuse and showing characters in a sympathetic light. So if the movie has unreliable narrators on purpose, what is accurate to what we know and what is just made up and what will we never know?

Whether it's true or not, it's basically a truth universally acknowledged that Lavonna Harding was often verbally and physically abusive to Tonya, and this was witnessed several times over the years.

While no one witnessed a young Tonya Harding peeing herself on the ice, it was well known that Nirvana would refuse her request to get off the ice after having scrimped and saved to pay for her lessons. Levonna was also witnessed hitting Tonya with a hairbrush by other child skaters.

The fact that Nirvana was paying for Tonya's lessons was always mentioned and Tonya really did have to go to school in her skating costume for class photos so that she also had skating photos. Tonya's father didn't leave the family first, Nirvana did. Tonya lived with her father for 18 months until he got a new job in Idaho.

Tonya then moved back in with her mother, who was by then married to her sixth husband, James Golden. Tonya's half brother Chris Davidson, AKA Creepy Chris, really did try to sexually assault Tonya when she was 15.

She ended up running to a neighbor's house to call the police. Davidson was arrested and spent several years in jail for the attempted assault. He was then killed in a hit and run after his release from prison.

daughter haven't spoken since: 2002

A death threat really was called in against Tonya Harding before a regional competition in the Pacific Northwest. Whether it was at CART or not is unknown, but it probably wasn't him.

While Harding never told the judge to suck her appendage, shall we say, when she read it in the script, Harding wished she had said it.

ith Jeff Gillooly after their: 1993

And in one of the more bizarre turns, Shawn Eckhart really did believe he was a counter terrorist expert, often bragging about his dangerous exploits.

nterview with Diane Sawyer in: 1994

Various people went to the FBI with information about Eckhart's confessions, including his close friend Gene Saunders, who was wiretapped by the FBI to gather information from Eckhart. Eckhart was questioned the next day and confessed to his involvement in Nancy Cogan's attack.

The goons that were hired, Shane Stant and Derek Smith, were nephew and uncle. Stant really did move his car every 30 minutes to avoid suspicion in the car park of the Tony Kent Arena.

The movie suggests he did every 15 minutes, but still avoiding suspicion there like an absolute pro. Stant also really did headbutt a glass door to escape the Cobo center in Detroit after the attack on Kerrigan.

He also tackled an innocent bystander to the ground as he ran to Smith in the getaway car. After the incident and the resulting media circus, Tonya Harding tried to stay out of the glare of the cameras.

So to get pictures, the media would try to get her car towed or set off the alarm just so she would have to leave her home and face them. But the final truth of the matter is that Tonya Harding pled guilty to conspiring to hinder the prosecution and Nancy kerrigan's attackers.

In March: 1994

Harding was banned from participating in any events sanctioned by the USFSA, including as a coach.

In her: 2008

And if you don't know what that is, it's where I try and link every movie that I feature with Keanu Reeves for no reason other than he is the best of men.

And sometimes it's really easy to link Keanu to movies, especially when he starred with someone or there's like a tenuous link to a movie that he was into this one.

But I actually found a really interesting connection between this movie and Keanu Reeves in that I mentioned that Margot Robbie experienced a herniated disc in her neck which was incredibly painful for her and she just kind of baffled through it.

And it's interesting as well because Keanu Reeves had a neck injury on the Matrix and he trained with a neck brace and he didn't want anyone to know that he couldn't do the film.

ng got the triple axel at the: 1991

mpionships, she skated to the: 1989

It's something that's fairly commonplace now, but it was unheard of back then due to the very traditionalist nature of the sport and people tending to prefer classical music to skate to. Some of the songs featured in Ortonia had been used in Harding's real life routines like ZZ Top Sleeping Bag.

cobs selected tracks from the: 1970

The soundtrack also includes iconic anthems like En Vogue's Free youe Mind and Heart's Barracuda.

Singer songwriter Sufjan Stevens sent his song Tonya Harding to Jacobs to be used in the movie, but it was turned down because they couldn't find a way to use it in the film. Peter Nashl composed the score to I Tonya in a little over three weeks.

to film festival in September: 2017

But shortly before production on the film began, Miramax had acquired the domestic distribution rights to I Tonya for $6 million and they'd also helped complete the film. However, prior to the film's premiere, Miramax put the distribution rights on sale.

A bidding war ensued for the domestic distribution rights to the film, with Netflix Entertainment Studios, Annapurna Pictures, CBS Films and Aviron Pictures all bidding for the movie. The bid was won by Neon and 30 West.

for awards season in December: 2017

While it had slowly increased the number of cinemas it was available in, it would never quite crack the US top 10, peaking at 12th in its fifth week and then again in its ninth week.

On its $11 million budget, I Tonya grossed $30 million domestically in the US and $23.9 million internationally, for a total worldwide gross of $53.9 million. It also has a 90% rating of rotten Tomatoes.

With a critical consensus reading led by strong work from Margot Robbie and Anison Janney, I Tonya finds the humor in its real life story without losing sight of its more tragic and emotionally resonant elements.

had covered the real story in: 1994

At the Academy Awards, it was nominated for Best Actress for Embargo Robbie, Best Supporting Actress for Alison Janney and Best Film Editing for Tatiana S Regal. Alice and Janney would end up winning.

Janney also won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress with the movie nominated for Best Actress, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hair and Best Original Screenplay.

Janney also won the Golden Globe, with Margot Robbie again nominated for Best Actress and the movie itself nominated for best motion picture, musical or comedy. And so this was a movie that ended up a commercial success, a critical success, and an awards season success as well.

The quote unquote whack heard around the world created a worldwide media frenzy long before Twitter or Instagram and was really only quashed after the O.J. simpson Chase and the subsequent trial. The word gillooly became a verb to gillooly someone.

But the biggest change after the incident was figure skating itself.

d in the short program at the: 1994

Kwon was 13 years old, training in the Cobo arena the day Nancy Kerrigan was attacked. And everyone in the arena was left shaken by a man seemingly able to get past security and attack a professional skater in broad daylight.

The media obsession with Tonya Harding led to TV networks fighting to show skating events, creating TV specials on skaters. A total of 13 professional competitions were aired on TV after Harding's downfall.

y fans. This boom lasted from: 1994

By the: 2014

In a life of abuse and neglect, skating had been her one true love, and for a while, it had loved her in return. Exactly how involved she was in the planning and execution of the attack on Nancy Kerrigan is debatable.

And the point of this movie is, I guess we'll never truly know the real story.

Harding was punished for her involvement and was punished severely from a sport that constantly punished her for being different and for being, quote unquote, white trash.

Harding being banned from the sport led to her trying other avenues, including reality TV and celebrity boxing, as well as becoming a welder, a painter and a sales clerk. While skating had been her one true love. It's not anymore. The final title card reads, tonya wants you to know she's a good mother.

Stephen Rogers had asked Harding during their interviews. How do you want people to remember you? Harding replied, I want people to know I'm a good mother.

She is now married with a teenage son, and in doing so has basically broken the cycle of abuse and neglect she became the mother for her son that she'd always wanted for herself. Tonya Harding may not have had love in her early life, but she has love now.

Despite everything, Harding continued to love skating and returned to the ice, even reuniting with her former coach, Dodi Teachman. Nancy Kerrigan was not consulted for the film and had no input into her portrayal.

Her character has minimal screen time in the movie, appearing primarily in footage of the attack and its aftermath. Director Craig Ganespi did this on purpose and made a conscious decision to focus on Harding's story rather than the rivalry between the two skaters.

Harding did attend the movie's premiere and reportedly was emotional after viewing it.

She has expressed some appreciation for how the film portrayed aspects of her life that the public didn't know about, particularly her difficult upbringing and abusive relationship, but didn't agree with Jeff Gillooly's point of view. Kerrigan, however, has been mostly quiet about the film.

In interviews around the time of the film's release, she indicated she hasn't seen it and wasn't particularly interested in revisiting that chapter of her life, which is absolutely fair.

While Alice and Janney won all the awards, this movie lives and dies quite literally on the work of Margot Robbie, whether that's as the lead actor or the producer.

She is a conventionally beautiful blonde known for the Wolf of Wall street and Suicide Squad, both movies where sex appeal and the male gaze were firmly a priority to this movie, where, let's be honest, there is no sex appeal, there is no male gaze, but she is phenomenal in this movie. I Tonya proved she act her socks off as well as find great stories as a producer. She is everything in this movie and he's just Jeff.

But it's the way this movie depicts abuse that I find the most interesting. I Tonya never sugarcoats the abuse.

It never condones the behaviors of Levonna or Jeff or indeed of Tonya herself, but highlights the cycle of abuse and how abusers always go back to their patterns of abuse and victims just want to be loved. And so the cycle perpetuates. And it's not just physical abuse either, but emotional abuse as well as educational abuse.

LaVonna limits her daughter's education, takes her out of school to skate, which made Tonya Harding a great skater but also limited her access to friends or support networks.

Love, honor, strengthen, saved to fund Tonya's skating career, but never because she loved her daughter or wanted her to live a better life, but to be the consummate narcissist and always have her daughter under her control for the rest of her life as penance for the sacrifices she made.

Just as Tonya reached her limit, she met Jeff Gillooly, her meal ticket away from her abusive mother, and went from being abused by her mother to being abused by her husband. And then after being abused by her husband and divorcing him, she was abused by the hierarchy of ice skating. She was deemed not good enough.

Then she was abused by the media, ridiculed and mocked mercilessly with everyone having an opinion on her life, whether she did it, whether she knew, whether she wanted Nancy Kerrigan out of the way. And this isn't to say that Tonya Harding is innocent throughout all of this. She is not. Nancy Kerrigan is the one who is completely innocent.

Tonya Harding perpetuated abuse. She was involved in the attack on Nancy Kerrigan and she paid the price for it.

The court of public opinion also found her guilty, but on way more serious charges than the law did.

This movie doesn't exonerate her, but it does highlight there are always multiple sides to the story that hurt people, hurt people, and that we're all capable of abuse.

It may not be obvious, but every time we judge someone else, whether that's on TV or in gossip magazines, we're feeding that narrative and adding to their invisible trauma. But ultimately, just like Tonya Harding's famous triple axel, I Tonya absolutely sticks the landing. Thank you for listening.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on I Tonya. And thank you as always for your continued support of this podcast.

If you want to get involved and help this podcast grow and reach more people, you could tell your friends and family about this podcast. You could leave a rating or review wherever you found this podcast. Or you can find me, follow me and like and share posts on social media.

I am erbaldiorama on all of the social medias. And if you like this episode on I Tonya, you might also like some of the episodes that I have done on women in sports specifically.

I'm just going to highlight a couple of them.

a lot more smart for an early: 2000

And also episode 248, which is fighting with My Family, which is also based on a true story, the True Story of the WWE Wrestler Page and How She Became the WWE Wrestler Page. I actually did that for women's History Month last year.

So that is a more recent episode, but it was a lot of fun to do because I know very little about wrestling exactly the same as I knew very little about ice skating until I did this episode.

So basically what I'm saying is I use Verbal Diorama as an excuse to just learn about things, which hopefully is the reason you're listening yourself. Let me know what you think of those movies and of those episodes. So the next episode of this podcast gonna be something completely different.

I have two words for you. Ugly Sonic.

The next episode of Bubble Diorama is going to be on the History and Legacy of Sonic the Hedgehog and the incredible decision that they made after the trailer was released to completely redesign Sonic. Listening to fan feedback not only saved the movie, but created a billion dollar Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. But don't feel bad for Ugly Sonic.

He turned up in the Chippendale Rescue Rangers movie. I hope you will join me next episode for the history and Legacy of Sonic the Hedgehog.

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Em: 00:44:35

Bye.