As far as golf movies go, there are only a few that stand the test of time, but there may be one on the horizon that boasts the kind of star power that rarely enters the sporting movie realm.
Newly-announced World Golf Hall of Fame inductee Jan Stephenson hinted that a biopic about her life may be in the works and the Oscar-nominated Margot Robbie has expressed interest in playing the future Hall of Famer.
“We’ve talked about doing a movie,” Stephenson told Golf Australia’s Inside the Ropes podcast. “Margot Robbie wants to play me.”
Robbie, 28, is Australian, like Stephenson, and has become one of the most famous actresses in Hollywood thanks to her roles in “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Suicide Squad” and “I, Tonya,” in which she played disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding.
Stephenson won 16 times on the LPGA Tour in the 1970s and 1980s, including three major championships, but she gained mainstream notoriety by using her looks to bring attention to the Tour during a time when few were interested in the women’s game.
Hall-of-Famer Jan Stephenson recently shared that Margot Robbie has expressed an interest in playing her in a potential movie: https://t.co/Qq7fYnZxRf pic.twitter.com/oRidadxm8B
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) October 23, 2018
Golf.com’s Michael Bamberger described Stephenson as “unabashedly, the first woman professional golfer to use her sexuality in a bold marketing effort,” he wrote following the announcement of her induction.
“Coming of age in golf in the mid-1970s, when millions of American men were obsessing about a certain poster of the TV star Farrah Fawcett, Stephenson produced what was, then, a provocative calendar, including a famous photo of her in a bathtub covered by Maxfli golf balls.
“Her various marketing efforts worked for two primary reasons: the camera loved her, and she could play. She’s getting into the Hall of Fame, deservedly, on the basis of her play. Her 16 LPGA wins include the 1982 LPGA Championship and the 1983 U.S. Open, where she finished a shot ahead of two future Hall of Famers, Patty Sheehan and JoAnne Carner. She also won in Europe, Japan, Australia, as a senior golfer and, notably, in the 1983 JCPenney Mixed Team Classic, with Fred Couples. Couples is in the Hall of Fame. Stephenson has done more in women’s golf than Couples did in the men’s game.”
There has been no confirmation as of yet from Robbie on the possibility of her taking on the role.
