Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is almost here and it won’t be long before the public is raving about Margot Robbie‘s performance. In a recent interview with Cinemablend, the star says that she had to remind everyone on set that despite the lovable nature of the villain, she’s still a terrible person. Those comments are hard to fathom sometimes as Harley has become one of the most beloved DC characters in recent years. But, at the core, she’s still a bad guy and the actress wanted to make sure no one lost sight of that.
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“Sometimes I’m like, that is not what she would do. I think there’s the temptation to, at least in this version because Cathy was definitely interested in seeing this more vulnerable version of Harley. We all wanted to see like, ‘What does Harley order for breakfast when she’s hungover? What does Harley’s apartment look like?’ We did want to see that real-life side of her. But, I think there was a temptation. I think Cathy was loving the vulnerable, fun, and sweet version of Harley and I had to keep being like ‘She’s a bad person still.’ She can’t be good, she’s a s***** person.”
Christina Hodson penned the script for Birds of Prey and she told Total Film about how much the star wanted this story to focus on Harley and her connection to the other ladies in the cast. That energy is abundantly clear now that fans have has the chance to see the trailers for themselves.
“Margot knew she wanted to tell a ‘Harley Quinn plus girls’ story,” Hodson told the publication. “That was kind of where she began with it. She knew she wanted a girl gang. She wanted Harley to have friends. [Margot] had naturally gravitated towards the Birds of Prey. She’s a comic-book fan. Obviously, you know, it’s not a traditional team-up. So then it was about finding fun, inventive ways of doing that. Warners were very supportive in terms of letting me go off-leash.”
“Obviously, yes, it’s a character we have met before, but it’s really its own story, and that’s kind of how I approached it,” Hodson continued. “I just tried to take myself off-leash. I fell in love with this character, and then all of these other new characters. And I just created a brand new story that felt like its own thing, and that doesn’t have to feel like it follows one or the other.”
