SANTA FE (KRQE) – With millions and millions of people nationwide following the Super Bowl, Australian actress Margot Robbie hit New Mexico with a low blow on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
Robbie was on the show with Tina Fey promoting the movie Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, set to be released next month. The movie is set in Afghanistan and filmed last year in New Mexico. Fey asked Colbert whether he’d been to New Mexico. He said no and Robbie jumped in with a quip.
“Lots of missing teeth,” said Robbie.
The remark drew a lot of laughter from Fey and the audience, but not so much from New Mexicans.
On Twitter, some mentioned boycotting the movie and remarked that they were upset about the state being hit with the negative attack. Gregory Sellers tweeted a picture of himself smiling, writing “I’m not missing any teeth @MargotRobbie and I live in New Mexico!”
The remarks came in a show airing immediately after the Super Bowl and the day before Film Day at the state capital, honoring the industry that’s grown in New Mexico after the state started issuing a generous film tax credit.
Some lawmakers KRQE News 13 spoke to were disappointed in reaction to the comments.
“I was quite shocked when I first heard the comment,” said Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto.
“Well it’s difficult to hear,” said Ivey-Soto, D-Albuqeurque, who was watching when the comment was made. “I think we’ve really gone out of our way to be welcoming to the film industry and we want to continue to support the industry being here in New Mexico.”
Sen. Ted Barela, R-Estancia, who has a silver cap over one of his front teeth, encouraged New Mexicans to laugh off Robbie’s dig, understand it in the context of a comedy show and not take it too personally.
“Rise up, rise up,” Barela said. “We are better than that and we can react to it better than that,” he said. “The content is comedy, so you know, it’s really not a bad thing,” Barela added.
Robbie is far from the first to slam the state after filming here. Seth MacFarlane dropped in a joke about “New Mexico trash” into a “Family Guy” episode after filming the comedy “One Million Ways to Die in the West.”
Jessica Alba slammed Albuquerque’s restaurant selection in 2008, although it’s possible she meant to attack Alamogordo instead.
Mary McCormack, star of “In Plain Sight”, agreed Albuquerque was “boring” on E! Network’s Chelsea Lately, but later apologized.
Neither the New Mexico Film Office nor the State Tourism Department had responded to a request for comment as of Monday evening.
