Margot Robbie’s performance as Harley Quinn was one of the highlights of the Suicide Squad film, the movie that delivered the one, of the one-two punch, that pretty much wrecked the DCEU. That being said, people have been largely optimistic about the idea of a Harley Quinn movie … sans Jared Leto’s pimp daddy Joker.
According to Robbie, her vision for the Harley solo film has stayed the same for the past three years. Says Collider:
“I pitched the idea of an R-rated girl gang film including Harley, because I was like, ‘Harley needs friends.’ Harley loves interacting with people, so don’t ever make her do a standalone film. She’s got to be with other people, it should be a girl gang. I wasn’t seeing enough girl gangs on screen, especially in the action space. So that was always a big part of it.”
I am really glad that Margot Robbie has been pushing for this movie to be made, but it also feels like DC should have been a little more vigilant in getting it done. With the success of Wonder Woman and the middling response to Justice League, putting money into a female lead project seems like the right move to make.
Robbie also said it was important to have a female director at the helm, who ended up being Cathy Yan. Yan is the second female director to work with DC and their first female Asian director.
“And then of course having a female director to tell that story. And giving a female director the chance to do big budget stuff. They always get ‘Here’s the tiny little film’… I was like, ‘I love action. I love action films. I’m a girl. What, are we meant to only like a specific thing’?” So it was a hugely important to find a female director for this, if possible. But at the end of the day — male, female — the best director gets the job and Cathy was the best director.”
Calling Cathy the best director is important, because so often when a non-white, non-cis-male gets to direct a movie like this, it can be seen as a “diversity” compliance; as if people are really looking to hand out multi-million directing jobs to women and POC on a whim. Whenever this Harley & co-film does happen, a woman will be directing and Christina Hodson will be the screenwriter, which is exciting.
“I want to make a girl gang, R-rated film that Harley is a part of,” Robbie explained during an interview with Moviefone, “And we started working on it from there. Meanwhile, over the course of the next few years, the studio was exploring other Harley Quinn spin-offs. But I was not a part of those versions, I was always focused on this one with Christina… I know that they were exploring ‘Gotham City Sirens’ with David Ayer, and I know they were exploring a Joker and Harley Quinn movie, and they were exploring doing I don’t know what else. I wasn’t a part of those. I was focusing on this. I kept presenting it to the studio until they felt it was at a point where they were ready to do it. And now we’re all in.”
They can keep a Joker and Harley Quinn movie in the vault forever and for all time, amen. I do enjoy that couple for what it is, but it’s been years since they’ve been together in the comics and as I’ve said before, Harley as a character has outgrown the Joker as a real “romantic” love interest. However, if she does need a love interest, it would be a great time to re-introduce Poison Ivy to the live action Bat-Universe. Harley Quinn is not heterosexual and doesn’t need a male love interest.
As we wait to see what happens next and which bad-ass ladies from the DC universe will be brought in (please Black Canary and Huntress x100), I also wanna say that Margot Robbie has really managed to create an image for herself beyond the hyper-sexualized character she played in Wolf of Wall Street. Hollywood tends to be unkind to actresses like Robbie, but instead of fading away, Robbie has gone to do I, Tonya and has her own production company. Not to mention, she’s going to be working with female director Josie Rourke in her upcoming film, Mary Queen of Scots.
Funny how you can totally work with a female director early on in your career?
(via Collider, image: Warner Bros.)
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