The Time When Jack picked Margot Robbie up from LAX

I bundled Margot’s suitcase into the back of our silver 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee at LAX. “Thanks, Jack” she said as she hopped in. Margot and Cailtin didn’t pause for breath the whole way back to our apartment in West Hollywood. This was Margot’s first ever time in Los Angeles, and they had a lot to catch up on.

It was October 2010, just 5 months after we’d started The Big Sky and I’d moved to LA with my then girlfriend as she tried to crack the big time. It wasn’t particularly great for business that I’d left London so soon after starting a production company, but in those days, we were just making it up as we went along.

We showed Margot around our little one bedroom apartment, on a quiet street sandwiched between Sunset and Santa Monica Boulevards. “We’ve made up the futon for you, Margot. It’s actually quite comfortable”, I said.

I was working from home, talking daily with co-founders Ben & Guy back in London on Skype, and trying to find work for The Big Sky in the US. In a city seething with “industry people” - it was as hard as it sounds. The hustle was fun though, and I drove Margot to a couple of her first auditions in Hollywood. She turned heads wherever she went and it was pretty clear that she’d go a long way.

At that time we’d come up with a genius idea for The Big Sky; interactive videos. Back then we thought that clickable videos were surely going to revolutionise e-com. What if you could buy an outfit directly from a video? We’d trademarked “ClickVID” and were developing the world's first shoppable video at the time. The only problem was, we needed a demo.

Margot and Caitlin graciously agreed to help out, and we spent an evening on Santa Monica pier with my Canon 7D which I’d bought to practise my camerawork with. I didn’t realise the significance at the time, but this would be Margot’s first ever shoot in LA. With The Big Sky, making an ad that nobody even saw. True story.

Watch the video here.