Birds of Prey’s Margot Robbie Reveals They Used Dogs Instead of Real Hyena

Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is so close to releasing and fans are pumped for the film. Comicbook.com’s Brandon Davis sat down with Margot Robbie to talk about a number of things and surprisingly how they got the hyena to behave on set. It turns out that there a bit of filmmaking magic at play here as those aren’t really hyenas on set, but it was a very adorable dog. It turns out the pup was more than ready for the task and it sounds like Robbie took a liking to her canine companions. Listen to her tell the story in the video below and read her explanation as well.

“It was one of those things where when we first put it in the script, Christina and I, because obviously in the comics, Harley has two hyenas,” Robbie began. “Ultimately, we have one because even one was expensive. We thought it was a great idea at the time, and then in pre-production it suddenly became, ‘So, how are we doing the hyena thing?’ It’s incredibly difficult.”

She continued, “We went to go see a real-live hyena. There’s a hyena in California that’s appeared on-screen before. It turns out it was going to be impossible to shoot with him because they’re extremely dangerous and take ownership of anything they touch. So, if you put him on a couch, he’s gonna eat the couch. You can’t get the couch back, it doesn’t really work for filming. So ultimately, we had a really big dog that had it’s fur CGI-d and body shape as well to look like a hyena. Because the alternative is to have a dude in a green suit. That’s often weird. I’ve seen that process play out when we did Tarzan. I remember Alexander Skarsgård nuzzling with this big burly dude from South London. I was just like, ‘This is weird, isn’t it?’”

When the trailers for Birds of Prey first made their way out into the world, the fans were very caught off-guard by the fact that the two animals were featured. Now, after seeing more of the film people realize that the entire journey feels like a celebration of everything Harley Quinn. It sounds like that’s the exact kind of tone and story that Margot Robbie set out to tell.

“Exactly. You get to see another side of Harley,” Robbie said later on, which you can check out below. “It’s interesting. You keep getting to meet her at different points in her life, as if a couple of years have gone by. Of course, the films aren’t directly connected, but as an actor, I can map it out in a chronological sense. So, it’s fun to see ‘Okay, what was she like a couple of years ago when she was with Mister J?’ ‘What is she like now, after they’ve broken up? And what is she going to be like in another couple of years’ time?’ I love seeing her at these different stages of her life.”

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