STACK #184 Feb 2020

CINEMA FEATURE

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STACK visited the set of Birds of Prey to chat with star and co-producer Margot Robbie about the ‘Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn’. Words Gill Pringle

S miling demurely through a dizzying a Time…in Hollywood , STACK got to witness a very different Margot Robbie earlier last year on the set of her upcoming movie, Birds of Prey . It’s on the movie set where Robbie really comes alive, never more so than with Birds of Prey , pulling double duty as the film’s co-producer. This is no vanity title, given that she fought for this film to be made – and without her input it’s quite likely it wouldn’t exist at all, given the failings of Suicide Squad (2016) where she debuted her Harley Quinn alongside Jared Leto’s Joker. “I first pitched the idea when we were still shooting Suicide Squad in 2015, so it’s taken almost four years to have it fully realised to where it is now,” says Robbie, who has award season where she’s in the mix for roles in both Bombshell and Once Upon

exist in the DC world are quite dark, so I felt we might have a little more liberty with a [US] R-rating to really delve deeply and explore the characters in an unbridled fashion.” With director Cathy Yan, she found a kindred spirit – another member of the girl gang, if you like. If an independent filmmaker with little proven track record might not be the first choice of a major studio, then Robbie was convinced from hello. “Cathy did this incredible film called Dead Pigs , which she shot in China with little time or money. Therefore, you feel very confident that someone can pull off a giant film when they do something as extraordinary as that. But it also had an ensemble cast and a huge aspect of this is: How do you give, with little real estate on screen, people the opportunity to understand everyone’s characters and their motivations, and then enjoy watching them

amassed an impressive collection of Suicide Squad/Harley Quinn comic books. Her one-sentence pitch? “R-rated girl gang film – with Harley!” she laughs. That pitch doesn’t stray far from the truth. Essentially a Harley Quinn film, we see her, post-break-up with the Joker, joining up with superheroes Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett- Bell), Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) to rescue a young girl from an evil crime lord. “It seemed crazy to me that in real life I was always hanging out with a girl gang – whether it’s my London girls, my Aussie girls, my American girl group – we always roll in a gang and yet I so rarely see a girl gang on screen, so I crave that and I’m sure audience members do too,” she says. “Plus, when we were shooting Suicide Squad , of course many of our characters who

12 FEBRUARY 2020

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