Julianne Nicholson joins Margot Robbie’s Tonya Harding comedy bio

PanARMENIAN.Net - Julianne Nicholson is joining the cast of Margot Robbie’s Tonya Harding comedy biopic “I, Tonya” with principal photography launching in Atlanta, Variety said.

She joins a cast that includes Sebastian Stan as Harding’s spouse Jeff Gillooly, Allison Janney as Harding’s mother Lavona, and Paul Walter Hauser as bodyguard Shawn Eckhardt. Nicholson, whose credits include “Sophie and the Rising Sun,” “Black Mass,” the TV series “Eyewitness” and “August: Osage County,” is on board to play Harding’s first skating coach, Diane Rawlinson.

Miramax bought U.S. distribution rights last month to the comedy, which will center on Harding’s attack on rival figure skater Nancy Kerrigan, which was aimed at breaking Kerrigan’s leg so she couldn’t compete in the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer.

Harding’s involvement would eventually lead to her stripping of her 1994 national title and a lifetime ban from the figure skating world.

Craig Gillespie (“Lars and the Real Girl”) is directing. Robbie, who broke out in “Suicide Squad” this summer, will also produce along with Tom Ackerley through their Lucky Chap producing company with Bryan Unkeless and Steven Rogers, who also wrote the screenplay.

Len Blavatnik and Aviv Giladi will executive produce for AI Film, which is financing the project. AI came on to the project in October.