Margot Robbie Once Revealed This ONE Thing About Harley Quinn She Did Not Understand

The debut of Harley Quinn took place in the 2016 movie Suicide Squad. Margot Robbie, dressed in chrome, insane stripper attire, portrays a more adult version of Harley than Arleen Sorkin did.

Published on Mar 26, 2024  |  05:38 PM IST |  130.2K
Barbie's Margot Robbie discussed her research for her role as Harley Quinn.
Margot Robbie (PC: IMDb)

Although Harley would only make an appearance in nine episodes of Batman: TAS, she would later start to feature in DC Comics. After splitting from the Joker and taking on a daffy, murderous persona with a great lot of agency, Harley has emerged as a more well-liked figure in recent years than the Joker. She's now developing a romantic relationship with Poison Ivy, the villain.

Robbie adores Harley Quinn

Margot Robbie came to adore Harley as a character and managed to convey a lot of Sorkin's clownish enthusiasm. Still, the actress acknowledged in a 2016 Washington Post interview that she didn't entirely get why Harley would be drawn to an abusive boyfriend like the Joker. Robbie wouldn't comprehend until she began reading about co-dependent relationships.

Margot Robbie

In an attempt to gain a sense of the character's literary roots, Margot Robbie bought an assortment of DC Comics featuring Harley Quinn in order to study the part. The actress decided to go deeply into Harley in an attempt to find the answer to a question that had been bothering her, even though she had no intention of reading them all. Specifically, what did Harley Quinn see about the Joker? After all, he was a killer and a lunatic. 

The Joker in Suicide Squad was particularly imbalanced; instead of the violent anarchist with a circus obsession audiences were used to, he came across as a new-money, club-dwelling brat. For the sake of a man, why would a professional psychiatrist give up everything and turn into a vicious clown? Robbie stated: "I just didn't understand how she could be such a badass and then fall to pieces over some guy. I found that really frustrating. Fans seem to really love that about her, that she has this complete devotion to a guy that treats her badly."

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Margot Robbie

Things came together because Robbie's acting coach, Jean-Louis Rodrigue, recommended she start researching codependency. Sam Shepard's 1983 play Fool for Love was suggested to be read by Rodrigue so that Robbie could gain some understanding. The story of Fool for Love is set in a hotel room in the Mojave Desert, where May, one of the characters, has been hiding from Eddie, her violent boyfriend. Eddie finds her and tries to persuade her to return to him. They appear strangely connected yet also despise one another. Later on, it will come to light that Eddie and May are actually half-siblings without even realizing it—codependency, pain, and abuse. For Robbie, things started to combine. Harley was a sad person.

Harley was incarcerated in Suicide Squad, estranged from her beloved Joker (Jared Leto). She tried to plan their reunion for a good chunk of the film. In the 1992 episode Joker's Favour, Harley Quinn—a harlequin-clad mistress of the Joker—made her television debut on Batman: The Animated Series. The character's voice was provided by actor Arleen Sorkin, who gave her a "bubblehead" Brooklyn accent that immediately won over audiences. Harley Quinn resembled Prank (Zoey Clark), the quirky mistress of the Joker from the 1990 television series The Flash, in appearance and demeanor. Her backstory was straightforward: Dr. Harleen Quinzel, the Joker's psychiatrist, had such a strong personality that she left her everyday life to become his supervillain girlfriend.

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Margot Robbie also acknowledged researching codependency in general, most likely by looking up case studies and learning more about the psychology of the condition. Harley Quinn was tough, but even badasses are vulnerable to manipulation and abuse. Robbie went on: "Once I could view it in those terms, it suddenly made sense, and I suddenly had so much empathy for Harley, and after that, it was all very straightforward. It was fun after all that."  

Margot Robbie

"Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)," helmed by Cathy Yan, was the sequel to Suicide Squad. When Robbie's divorce from the Joker and the creation of her own identity as a less-than-villainous character were made clear in that movie, many of the issues she faced in "Suicide Squad" were resolved. Harley started dressing less and less like she was ready for a strip club, and she made a new group of female friends who encouraged her outside of her relationship with Mr. J.

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Harley would later appear in James Gunn's The Suicide Squad, but this time, she was the hopeless romantic she once was. Nevertheless, she kills him right away once her supposed paramour betrays her. Sadly, Robbie is unlikely to reprise the role because Birds of Prey and The Suicide Squad weren't big hits. Next is Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn in Todd Phillips' Joker: Folie à Deux. The movie will tell the story of Harley's beginnings against Joaquin Phoenix's Joker character.

ALSO READ: Is Margot Robbie Producing a Movie Based on The Sims Following the Massive Success of Barbie? Here's What We Know

Credits: Film
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