Based on the career of American figure skater Tonya Harding, I, Tonya is a 2017 sports drama starring Margot Robbie. Harding is best known for being the first American woman to complete a triple axel in competition, but that didn’t mean she was popular with the judges. The film is raw about showing the audience how rough Harding is around the edges.
She was raised by a single, abusive mother – portrayed here by Allison Janney in an Oscar-winning performance – and never fit the public’s image of what a figure skater should be. As a result, she missed out on winning all of the important competitions in her career and was ultimately banned from the sport for hindering police investigations relating to the injury of fellow skater Nancy Kerrigan.
The movie adds a good measure of dark comedy to Harding’s story, making it an enjoyable watch with Robbie’s voiceover narration keeping things lighthearted. Nevertheless, she gives an emotional performance as Harding’s dreams fall apart thanks largely to her husband Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan).
Here are eleven memorable quotes from this vibrant dramatization of Tonya Harding’s career.
“Maybe you’re just not as good as you think.”
“There’s no such thing as truth … Everyone has their own truth.”
“All I know is skating … I’m no one if I can’t skate … It’s like you’re giving me a life sentence.”
“America, you know – they want someone to love, but they want someone to hate.”
“I don’t have a wholesome American family.”
“I made you a champion, knowing you’d hate me for it. That’s the sacrifice a mother makes! I wish I’d had a mother like me instead of nice … I didn’t like my mother, either – so, what? I f***ing gave you a gift!”
“I never apologized for growing up poor or being a redneck – which is what I am, you know … and it’s a sport where the friggin’ judges want you to be this old-timey version of what a woman is supposed to be … “
“Oh my God, It was totally the most awesomest thing. ‘Cause leading up it, you’re like, ‘I can’t do it! I can’t. I can’t!’ And then, bam, I can! And all those people who said I couldn’t make it, well f*** you! I did!”
“She just said, ‘Nancy Kerrigan trains at Tuna Can Arena’.”
“Nancy gets hit one time and the whole world sh**s. For me, it was an all-the-time occurrence.”
“Was anything I ever did good enough for you?”