I, Tonya has found its Nancy Kerrigan in budding actress Caitlin Carver, according to Deadline. Carver will be playing winning figure skater Kerrigan, also one of fellow Olympic teammates Tonya Harding’s biggest competition. Margot Robbie is playing Harding, the bad girl of figure skating.
Harding is known as the bad girl because of the scandal that erupted when a hitman, supposedly hired by Harding’s ex-husband and her bodygaurd, tried to take out Kerrigan by clubbing her knee and injuring her for the upcoming U.S. Figure Skating National Championships. Kerrigan was only bruised by the incident, however, which was caught on camera, and was cleared to compete in the Olympics later that year.
Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl) is directing the film for Miramax. Carver is joining a large supporting cast already consisting of Sebastian Stan, Allison Janney, Julianne Nicholson, and Paul Walter Hauser. Also recently announced for the cast is young actress McKenna Grace (TV’s Designated Survivor) as a young Tonya Harding and Bojana Novakovic (Edge of Darkness) as Harding’s second coach Doddie Teachman.
Carver’s most recent film appearance was in Warren Beatty’s Rules Don’t Apply. She was also in Paper Towns and the television shows The Fosters and Timeless.
Production has already begun on I, Tonya, which is expected to hit theaters next year.