Margot Robbie Did Almost All of Her Own Stunts for Suicide Squad

From the moment that first trailer debuted for Suicide Squad at Comic-Con last July (and leaked online, then was officially released online, shortly thereafter), the conversation about the film has been dominated by two topics: The Joker and Harley Quinn. During a set visit last summer, shortly after that trailer had been released, the conversation then turned often to this pair of loony lovers, as well.

Margot Robbie gained a lot of praise during the set visit for her portrayal as Harley Quinn. Being the jilted ex-lover of The Joker is an all-too-limited way of thinking about the character, who throughout the film will show her unique brand of leadership, her singular “me first” attitude, and a playfulness that will make fans fall in love with her all over again, even if they’re already devoted fans from the pages of DC Comics, or animated interpretations like the original Batman: The Animated Series and Batman: Assault on Arkham. There’s one other thing she does consistently, though, and that’s kick a lot of ass.

“She does a tremendous amount of her own stunts,” producer Richard Suckle said of Robbie during a walkthrough of the principal cast. “Almost all of her own stunts,” added Andy Horowitz.

Suckle continued, “People say, ‘This person did this stunt,’ but Guy Norris. who was our action unit director and stunt coordinator who just worked on Fury Road and we worked with many, many years ago, said she is by far the most compassionate, gifted actor he’s ever worked with and her ability to do things. She did something last night, which I won’t say, but it was shocking. All I’ll say is I went on set and I was watching the monitor and the camera was moving but she was doing something that I could’ve sworn, for sure, she had to be in a harness and, I kid you not, she was not in a harness. I was just blown away. She started training back in September [2014]!”

The scene Suckle was referring to is an elevator fight that Harley has with one of the mysterious Eyes of the Adversary. During the scene, she literally runs up the wall of the elevator to land behind the soldier, now in a position to choke him out.

“Her double is always on set,” Horowitz said with a grin, “most of the time [she] stands there and watches. She keeps thinking she’s going to have to go in,” but then Robbie just keeps pulling the stunts off herself.

Later on set, Robbie revealed to Comicbook.com and other press that she shot that scene alone for “like ten hours” the day before. “I can barely move my neck at the moment, so yeah, it’s pretty physically demanding!” she said, eyes wide. “That was… yeah. At the time you never feel the pain and then the next day you wake up and you’re like, ‘Oh, my God. That’s why we have professionals. Yeah, I can’t move.’”

For their part, other actors in the film were also noted as having done many of their own stunts, including Cara Delevigne (Enchantress), Will Smith (Deadshot, and others.

Suicide Squad, including Margot Robbie in most of her own stunts as Harley Quinn, hits theaters August 5, 2016.