In Suicide Squad, Australian actress Margot Robbie, finds herself relating to her character, the antihero Harley Quinn
SHE’S known to make an impact. Take last year’s Oscar-nominated The Big Short, where she luxuriates in a bubble bath overlooking a gorgeous ocean view, while explaining the 2008 financial meltdown.
It was a 30-second cameo but Margot Robbie stole the show and snared audience members with her explanation of a dry subject.
At 26, the Australia-born actress is living life in the fast lane, quickly ascending to the hallowed ranks of Hollywood’s A-listers. Her big splash in showbiz came in 2013, in Martin Scorsese’s biographical financial drama, The Wolf Of Wall Street, alongside Academy Award-winner Leonardo DiCaprio.
More recently, the Queensland native re-invented Jane in this year’s The Legend Of Tarzan, making her into an unconventional heroine.
The actress, who has been compared by critics to other legendary and famous individuals such as the late Audrey Hepburn and Angelina Jolie, plays baseball bat-wielding rogue Harley Quinn in the DC Comics superhero action film, Suicide Squad.
ANTIHERO STORY
In the film, Margot’s Harley Quinn teams up with the bad guys including The Joker (Jared Leto) to save the world. It’s an antihero story where a secret government agency recruits imprisoned supervillains to execute dangerous black ops missions in exchange for clemency (think The Dirty Dozen for a hipper, new generation).
The character of Harley Quinn was originally created by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm in the Batman: The Animated Series in the 1990s. A psychiatrist-turned-villain, the character, whose real name is Harleen Frances Quinzel, shared a complicated love affair with psychopathic uber-villain The Joker.
Suffice to say, she quickly became a fan favourite with her lovably brash, dangerous and unpredictable personality.
Aside from Margot’s character, the secret government agency, led by Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), in Suicide Squad recruits a motley crew of incarcerated bad boys such as Deadshot (Will Smith), Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), Boomerang (Jai Courtney), El Diablo (Jay Hernandez) and Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje).
TOTALLY BADASS
“Harley is just an awesome character to play. She’s such a badass and incredibly dimensional. And like all the other Squad members, she’s reluctant to be there. What’s really interesting about the Suicide Squad is that the members are not necessarily the good guys who are going to band together and save the world,” says Margot in an email interview.
She adds: “They have a really ugly side to them, too. They’re bad people who come together to do a good thing, essentially under duress. They’re not traditional heroes, but on this mission, each discovers that they have heroic qualities.”
According to Margot, playing the deviant character has been a fun and thrilling ride “from start to finish”.
“The research I did in the beginning was obviously fun and interesting, and the on-set experience was just incredible. It was exhausting, but in the most rewarding way,” she says.
“In the beginning, it’s every man for himself, but, by the end of the film, you see them united against the enemy, which is truly evil.”
EPIC EXPERIENCE
Growing up in Australia, Margot admits that she had never read DC Comics books.
“But I’ve always been a fan of David Ayer’s (director of Suicide Squad) work. When End Of Watch came out, I watched it four times in the cinema. It all comes down to the way he chooses to tell his story,” says the former star of the long-running Australian soap opera Neighbours.
She adds: “His stories are so engaging. When I knew that David would be writing and directing Suicide Squad, I knew I had to convince him to be a part of it.”
So when Margot was finally offered the role of Harley Quinn, she was over the moon.
“I knew it would be an epic experience, and it was. I’d been warned that when you work with David, you need to go really deep into your character and go far beyond what you may normally do in a film. My gut was telling ‘yeah, this is the one. Do it!’ And I did it,” Margot says.
She shares that David is an extremely character-driven and visionary director.
“I don’t know of any other filmmaker who gives direction the way that he does. He goes into the character’s history. He also taps into your own personal history and finds a way to utilise that on set, which elevates the performance. It’s an intense experience to go so far outside your comfort zone and do things you never imagined yourself doing, but, for an actor, it’s the most wonderful way to work.
“I’ve never experienced anything like it on a film. We all became so bonded, and it made the experience so much fun and added something to the film onscreen.
“It left us with this incredibly strong foundation for a relationship with each other and with David, and that’s exactly what you need on set.”
NO SUGAR-COATING IT
Margot liked the way David directed all the actors on set — he showed no preference.
“I appreciate that a lot. That’s why I think the female characters in Suicide Squad are so badass. He’d give the same direction to me or to Cara (Delevignge) as he would to Will or Jai. It didn’t seem to me that he saw our characters as female, necessarily. He didn’t categorise us; we were all equal once we stepped onto that set,” she says.
“That’s real life anyway. Life isn’t sugar-coated just because you’re a girl, so why should you be directed that way?”
SCARILY UNPREDICTABLE
In the film, Margot’s character also used to be a psychiatrist who possesses an extensive knowledge on how to manipulate people. She uses people’s weaknesses and deftly works them to her advantage.
But even with an alarmingly frightening dark side, her ironically twisted and constant upbeat glee is what makes most of her fans fall for her. In the film trailer, she jokingly tells a group of people that she is going to kill them all, before adding that the voices in her head are instructing her to do so.
And all this with a sweet smile to boot. Yikes!
She says: “Harley is one of the more unpredictable of the lot. That’s the most fun thing about playing her. But all the characters are a little bit crazy and unpredictable so you just don’t know what’s going to happen next.
“That makes the scenes incredibly engaging to watch and fun and interesting to play because you don’t knowf the reaction or response you’re going to get.”
LOVING A BAD BOY
Suicide Squad marks Margot’s second time working with Will, after the duo worked together in the Glenn Ficarra-directed romantic crime comedy, Focus, last year.
In Suicide Squad, Smith plays Deadshot, the Squad leader by default.
She says the former Men In Black star is a natural leader and a very giving actor as well.
“Will is a wonderful person to work with. He is one of my favourite people in the world. We are already friends from the last film we did together and had months of hanging out together by the time we started this project. He always looks out for you and everyone else and we all really look up to him.”
On Harley’s relationship with Deadshot, besides The Joker, she says that the two have a history.
“There’s a romance going on between Deadshot and Harley but we don’t really delve into that in the film.
“It’s quite well known that Harley is The Joker’s girlfriend, and they have a very tumultuous relationship, on-and-off-again, almost a love-hate relationship.
“Joker doesn’t seem to know how to deal with his emotions for Harley, and, despite the fact that he continually tries to kill her, she’s just completely devoted to him.”
That was the main issue that Margot struggled to deal with regards to the character.
“She has this amazing sense of humour, she’s so strong and so smart but then she’s always falling to pieces over this guy.”
PHYSICAL CHALLENGES AND BEING A HERO
Margot performed all of the stunts herself, including some thrilling acrobatic work.
Prior to filming, she spent six months training with the stunt team in Australia’s Gold Coast.
“The physicality was a massive component of playing this character. David wanted to integrate the stunts into his film and wanted his actors to perform them. It was a great idea because I didn’t want to hand Harley over to someone else for half the film.”
Her daily training included gymnastics, Jiu-jitsu and sessions at the shooting range.
“It was necessary to practise holding up two revolvers and not have my hands shake because my arms were so weak from the other training sessions.”
On why people seem to relate better to antiheroes, particularly the Suicide Squad, Robbie thinks that it all boils down to the fact that none of us are perfect.
“The characters have so many flaws and issues but that’s what makes them so relatable,” says Margot, adding that, “The flaws resonate. Beneath the flaws and imperfections lies a hero.”
Warner Bros Pictures
Suicide Squad opens in cinemas nationwide on Aug 4.