While filming Suicide Squad, Margot Robbie, along with her co-stars, were encouraged to explore some dark and intense places for their roles.
However, this became a problem when Margot found herself getting too into the character of Harley Quinn and verbally attacking her fellow castmates.
Margot Robbie Opens Up About Finding Harley Quinn Role Frustrating
Margot Robbie, the actress who played the role of Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad, was not familiar with the comics growing up.
When she first got the role of Harley Quinn, she had to delve into the comic character to prepare for it. However, she found the character confusing and frustrating during her research for the character.
Robbie to Washington Post:
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.
Robbie did thorough research on Harley Quinn’s character. She read stories and literature to get into the character. She further studied various subjects like co-dependence for the role. Later, she was convinced by the character.
Robbie said:
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 Regrets Verbally Antagonizing Co-Stars for ‘Suicide Squad’ Role
As many fans would know, the character of Harley Quinn was a psychologist before becoming a villain. But Harley could easily manipulate anyone by using her psychological background. Ayers asked Robbie to use Quinn’s power of psychology to get into the heads of people in real life.
Robbie, in an interview with Collider:
Yeah, yeah, that actually I found really difficult because I find myself in real life, if there’s ever tension, I try to diffuse the tension. And that’s just a natural reaction for me. Where for Harley it’s the complete opposite.
While Margot was rehearsing for Suicide Squad along with her co-start, they were encouraged to tap into the real emotions of people in real life by the director David Ayer.
This made Robbie provoke her castmates when they were at their most vulnerable, as she was practicing the art of psychology for her role.
She said:
If Harley saw that they’ve shown a weak spot, she would like a little scorpion tail just like *psst*, get in there. And I felt so awful and so many times we did, like, these scenes and I was just saying awful things.
And seeing that someone’s struggling with something in particular, and David’s looking at me like, ‘you better get in there, that’s your window of opportunity right there, take it.’ It feels really awful sometimes.
Margot Robbie Reveals Her Most Unpleasant Acting Experience to Date
Robbie found it difficult to perform the role of Harley Quinn.
She said:
That chemical [scene] was the most unpleasant thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. So that was definitely my least favorite. It was like this gluggy paint stuff that was so far in my ears and up my nose, and I was choking on it underwater, and I couldn’t breathe, and I tried to open my eyes, and it would glaze over my eyeballs, and I could only see white. It was horrible.
On the other hand, there was another scene that she recalls fondly.
Robbie recalled a scene from Suicide Squad:
The underwater scene, with the car crashing into the water, that was my favorite because I got to work with a free-diving expert and learn how to hold my breath underwater for a really long time. So that’s like my new party trick.
Source: Collider
