Margot Robbie perfected theft skills on Focus set

Australian actress Margot Robbie pickpocketed crew members on the set of Focus to perfect her con artist skills.

The Wolf of Wall Street star plays a scamming femme fatale who goes head-to-head with a seasoned crook, played by Will Smith, to pull off a dangerous sting in the new movie.

Robbie enlisted the help of magician and sleight-of-hand expert Apollo Robbins to master the art of pickpocketing for the role, but she had trouble finding the confidence to pull the challenge off so he made her practise on unknowing crew members on set.

She tells British newspaper The Independent, "Apollo would have me practise on people walking into the room that were working on the set... The most terrifying thing is having the confidence to actually execute a lift. I knew how to do the steals and where to place my hands but to have the confidence; it's so ballsy to actually steal something off someone when you're looking at them in the eye. That's the thing I struggled with the most."