SQUAD GOALS
Suicide Squad’s Margot Robbie talks about what it’s like to go from screw-up to saviour
Suicide Squad buzz is at such a fever pitch, both pro and con, that breakout star Margot Robbie could be forgiven if she felt like swinging a baseball bat at it, like her character Harley Quinn.
“The hype has reached such a point at this stage that it’s kind of overwhelming,” the Aussie actress admits from a New York promo stop.
“I’m glad we didn’t have this pressure on us while still filming. We felt like we were the naughty little brother of all the other DC Comics projects that were going on. We were just going to be that funny little screw-up, so we had complete freedom with it and weren’t scared to take risks and push the envelope. Now it’s got a lot of weight resting on its shoulders, so it is a little daunting.”
That’s putting it mildly. Warner Bros. has grand hopes of launching not just a Suicide Squad franchise with Friday’s release of the heroic supervillain blockbuster, but also a Harley Quinn spinoff series that Robbie calls “just rumours at this point, but it’s definitely a conversation.”
Suicide Squad is widely viewed as not just one of the big movies of the summer, but possibly the one to “save” it, after weeks of underachieving epics (among them The Legend of Tarzan, her other current release).
Directed by David Ayer ( End of Watch, Fury), previously engaged with true-to-life street and battlefield dramas, Suicide Squad is expected to open to a boffo $140 million (U.S.) on 4,200 North American theatres this weekend, potentially an August record, despite sustaining heavy buckshot from critics.
And Robbie, 26, has emerged as the film’s most watchable star, no mean feat in a movie that also features such Hollywood heavyweights as Will Smith, Jared Leto, Ben Affleck and a scene-stealing Viola Davis.
Robbie was still largely unknown last summer when Suicide Squad was filming on Toronto streets, where citizens were alternately infuriated (traffic jams!) and delighted (Batmobile!) by the whambam proceedings.
At the time, Robbie was primarily recognized as the ferocious second wife of Leonardo DiCaprio’s lead character in The Wolf of Wall Street, a gig she landed after she impulsively slapped the star during her audition.
The blond dynamo, who first came to Hollywood attention via Australia’s Neighbours soap opera that she calls “boot camp for actors,” also gained raves for her performance in last year’s crime romance Focus, playing a seductive grifter opposite Will Smith, her eventual Suicide Squad co-star. Suicide Squad is really her debutante’s ball, however, with her killer clown character Harley Quinn being a role she’ll long be remembered for.
Robbie was surprised to see the impact Harley made when the first Suicide Squad teaser came out a year ago. Fans immediately started imitating her carnival showgirl attire of skin-tight T-shirt (with “Daddy’s Lil’ Monster” emblazoned on it), micro hot pants, pigtails and blood-red lipstick, all of it accessorized with the Louisville Slugger Harley loves to swing.
“It was a huge Halloween costume last year, which I was absolutely amazed by. People got it surprisingly really accurate, considering how little footage there was. But this year, once the movie’s come out, I guess people will be able to recreate it completely accurately once they see it on screen.”
She disputes as “completely untrue” the online rumours that she hated squeezing into Harley’s curvehugging attire.
“I loved the costume. I absolutely loved it. It’s perfect for the character, just like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I don’t think it would be getting talked about as like a Halloween costume if we had done something a little more conventional.”
But Harley is much more to her than just a look or a cartoon character, one dating back to Batman sagas of the 1990s.
Harley is actually a complicated basket of shifting personalities, a prison psychiatrist who falls insanely in love with her supervillain patient the Joker, played by Jared Leto.
“(Harley’s love of the Joker is) definitely her strongest character flaw, but I think that makes her more relatable and more interesting.” MARGOT ROBBIE
Robbie immersed herself in preparing for the role, including talking to psychiatric patients, because she wanted to understand how a seemingly sane and law-abiding woman could fall for a psychotic villain and begin not only dating him, but also acting like him.
“That was definitely one of the things I struggled to connect with most when I first started researching the character, Harley’s complete devotion to the Joker. Fans loved that aspect to it, but I couldn’t understand it, and for me it was the one thing I didn’t like about her.
“She is so awesome, why is she falling to pieces over this guy who treats her so badly? But over time, it actually ended up being the most interesting thing about her. I started looking into codependence and really toxic relationships like that and viewing it more as compulsion or an addiction, and it gave me just so much more empathy for the character. It’s definitely her strongest character flaw, but I think that makes her more relatable and more interesting.”
Ayer says he was awed by how easily Robbie slipped into the role of Harley, including adopting the char- acter’s Brooklyn accent.
“She’s a total chameleon, and I needed somebody who could do that. She’s also wicked intelligent. All these factors helped her become Harley Quinn because it’s a very complex role, and she makes it seem so easy to play that role. She lives in the skin of Harley Quinn so effortlessly, I’m a little concerned that people may not understand how really difficult the work is that she’s doing there.”
Robbie seems more concerned that young girls don’t view Harley Quinn as a role model, other than admiring her empowering attitude.
“If Harley was answering the question, she definitely wouldn’t call herself a role model! I guess there are aspects to the character that are kind of cool for young girls to see, but on the other hand, there are also aspects to the character which I definitely wouldn’t encourage for young girls.”
Robbie has another complex portrayal immediately ahead of her: disgraced Olympic skater Tonya Harding, the stop-at-nothing 1990s competitor who will get the biopic treatment with the coming I, Tonya.
The genre Robbie is really keen to get into, though, is westerns.
Something that would make use of all the stunt skills she learned in heavy physical training for Suicide Squad.
“I love westerns and I haven’t done one before, so that’s something else that I’ve been exploring with our production company. More stunts to do!”
Maybe she could find something that also involves a return trip to Canada. She loved being in Toronto for the many months it took shooting Suicide Squad here. And she has more than one reason for that, eh?
“I’m dying to get back to Toronto. It’s so easy to shoot there. I have a feeling I’ll be back very, very soon.
“And you know what’s really funny? Where I’m from in Queensland, we say ‘eh’ at the end of our sentences. The rest of Australia laughs at us for it. It sounds different from the way you guys say it, but it’s still an ‘eh.’ ”
I suggest to Robbie maybe she could play a Mountie in a Canadian western.
“I’m going to pitch that idea!” she replies. “You’re onto something.” Peter Howell is the Star’s movie critic. His column runs Fridays.