Margot Robbie Reveals What Happens If Harley Quinn Meets Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker

Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker would not last very long with Margot Robbie‘s Harley Quinn before he came away fundamentally changed by the experience, according to Robbie. During an interview in support of the forthcoming Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, Oscar-nominated actress joked that the grounded, gritty Arthur Fleck, who struggled with his inner demons and only eventually collapsed into being The Joker, would have descended into madness a lot faster if he had Harley around, bringing her bizarre antics and heightened reality into his world. Apparently, Robbie doesn’t imagine that Harley’s therapeutic skills would be of any value to ol’ Arthur.

The interview came from Capital FM, and Robbie appeared alongside co-star Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Winstead will play Helena Bertinelli — The Huntress — in the film, a character who will make her big-screen debut in Birds of Prey after memorable TV appearances on Birds of Prey and Arrow.

“I think they exist in two very different worlds, Todd Phillips’s Gotham and this Gotham – very different. I don’t know how you’d bridge that gap,” Robbie told an interviewer, then playfully added, “She’d drive him insane. She’d be on the other side of the fridge, like ‘here.’ ‘J-puddin, whatcha doin?’ ‘I just need a minute, I’m going through a lot of sh–.’”

Birds of Prey will follow a team-up between Harley Quinn, Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), and Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) in Gotham City. In the movie, Harley has just had a split with The Joker, and suddenly finds a target on her back. In particular, she finds that she is one of a number of women facing retribution from the Back Mask (Ewan McGregor), and puts together an alliance of heroes, antiheroes, and a police officer to stand against their common enemies.

The Birds of Prey is an all-female DC Comics superteam that has featured a rotating cast of characters over the years, but has almost always included Black Canary and The Huntress. Harley Quinn has rarely been a part of the team, although there isa comic book tie-in coming from Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti that is more or less exactly the tone, look, and lineup from the film.

Upcoming DC movies include Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) on February 7th, Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5th, 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, The Flash on July 1, 2022, and Aquaman 2 on December 16, 2022.