Australian actress Margot Robbie says she had to be convinced to play Elizabeth I in the new film Mary Queen Of Scots, saying she was "terrified" of following in the footsteps of screen greats like Cate Blanchett.

Key points: Robbie told the film director she didn't think she was good enough for the role

Robbie told the film director she didn't think she was good enough for the role Five Oscar winners have played Elizabeth I previously

Five Oscar winners have played Elizabeth I previously Mimicking the film, Robbie and co-star Saoirse Ronan largely stayed apart on set

Robbie stars alongside Saoirse Ronan, who plays the titular character in the upcoming historical drama about the feuding cousins.

Asked about taking the mantle from fellow Australian Blanchett, who played Elizabeth I twice in 1998 and 2007, Robbie told the ABC she was more than a little nervous.

"So many brilliant actresses have played Elizabeth, on screen and on stage, so it was really, really scary," she said.

Cate Blanchett and Margot Robbie (right) as Queen Elizabeth I. ( Supplied: Focus Features, Universal Pictures )

"It took a lot of convincing from [director] Josie Rourke, because I was like, 'I am not able to take this on, I am not good enough'.

"She was like, 'No, no, no — this movie is different. They're young women, they're just young women. Just look at her as a woman, not a queen'. And that helped."

The list of actresses who have portrayed Elizabeth I is impressive.

It includes Blanchett, Bette Davis, and Dames Helen Mirren and Judi Dench — all Oscar winners.

Robbie, however, holds her own, having already picked up an Oscar nomination for her lead in the 2017 biopic I, Tonya.

This new film tells the story of the fraught relationship between the cousins that pitted England and Scotland against each other in the 16th century.

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While most film and stage adaptations of the history focus on the victor Elizabeth — who ultimately oversaw the execution of Mary — this version takes a different approach.

It presents two complicated women who were thrust into positions of power at a young age and their struggle to hold onto it as predatory men circled their thrones.

Ronan told the ABC the film challenged a prevailing view of Mary.

"There's been biographies made about her that are one big mass of misconceptions," she said.

"The history books have just painted her out as this sort of silly young girl who just followed her heart and just wanted to fall in love with a man and didn't care for anything else, which just isn't true."

Saoirse Ronan as Mary in Mary Queen of Scots. ( Supplied: Focus Features )

Robbie and Ronan rarely appear on screen together in the film, and the actresses took the opportunity to try a rather unique approach to shooting it.

"We both agreed in the beginning that it would be better for us to stay apart. So we didn't rehearse together," Ronan said.

"I had heard about actors doing it before where they stayed apart and never thought it was something that I'd want to do, but I felt with this it would be a fun experiment."

The production schedule meant Robbie was wrapping on her part in the film just as Ronan was starting, and they met for one of the few scenes they shared.

"We stayed apart up until the very moment you see on screen where I pull the sheet down and we see each other for the first time," Ronan said.

"They had two cameras rolling on us simultaneously and we shot our reaction to Saoirse and Margot seeing each other and going, 'Oh my god, that's what you look like!'"