Birds of Prey’s Margot Robbie Explains Harley Quinn’s Break Up With the Joker

DC’s upcoming Birds of Prey movie is the start of a new phase in the life of Harley Quinn. The film follows Harley after her break-up with Joker. Margot Robbie plays Harley in the film, reprising her role from 2016’s Suicide Squad. Speaking to Empire Magazine, Robbie explained what the breakup means for Harley. “She’s trying to own it,” Robbie says. “That felt like a real way to deal with a break-up. It’s not clean and easy to be a strong woman. It’s so hard. She’s a bit more Courtney Love than Debbie Harry this time. She says, ‘I’m single, I don’t need him, fuck that guy.’ But if the Joker were to text her, ‘You up?’ she’d run. She’d fall to pieces.”

Robbie went into more detail about Harley and Joker’s relationship during a press visit to the Birds of Prey set. “The first film, is that her relationship with Joker always did confuse me the most,” Robbie said. “That was the thing that took me the longest to get my head around. In this film though we’re exploring her not being with Joker. And I actually understand the break-up. That’s something I feel like everyone can kind of understand and relate to in some ways. Though she deals with–like she blows things up, I don’t do that. I understand the motivation that spurred on that train of thought.

“I think something I explored a lot in Suicide Squad, the first film, was Harley’s co-dependence with the Joker. And obviously, he has a huge influence on her. But, obviously, she was very much in a relationship with him when we first saw Harley onscreen in Suicide Squad. And I did want to explore what is the version of Harley out of a relationship, and whether she’s out of a relationship on her own accord or he’s kind of kicked her to the curb. But it still affects her, but in a very different way. And I thought we’d see a very different facet of her personalities. Personalities, I would say. Because I think she has multiple.”

Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) stars Margot Robbie, r as Harley Quinn, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress, Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Black Canary, and Ella Jay Basco as Cassandra Cain, the founding members of the girl gang-like vigilante team called the Birds of Prey. Rosie Perez also stars as Gotham City Detective Renee Montoya. Ewan MacGregor and Chris Messina play the villains Black Mask and Victor Zsasz, respectively. Cathy Han is directing the film. Christina Hodson wrote the script.

Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) opens in theaters on February 7, 2020. Other upcoming DC Films movies include Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5, 2020, The Batman on June 25, 2021, The Suicide Squad on August 6, 2021, Black Adam on December 22, 2021, Shazam! 2 on April 1, 2022, Super Pets on May 20, 2022, The Flash on July 1, 2022, and Aquaman 2 on December 16, 2022.