Birds of Prey sees Margot Robbie return as the ultimate hot mess, Harley Quinn but this time she has a sisterhood in tow who are about to kick Gotham firmly in the ass. Joining the DC Universe for the first time is Jurnee Smollett Bell, AKA Black Canary – the superhero with vocal cords to rival Celine Dion and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as the gangster gal with a severe chip on her shoulder, Huntress. And boy, are these girls on the hunt to emancipate themselves from the toxic masculine influences in their lives.
WATCH: Margot, Jurnee and Mary Elizabeth on kicking sexism in the balls
To celebrate the release of Birds of Prey on 8th February, GLAMOUR teamed up with Birds of Prey – and our current GLAMOUR UK cover stars – to host a special Q&A with the cast, hosted by our Josh Smith. Here, the three stars of the latest DC film discuss representation, body image, imposter syndrome, sexism and… Clapham’s iconic night club venue, Infernos…
You girls are high-kicking higher than Sporty Spice in this, but I want to know how much of a badass broad are you in real life?
Mary Elisabeth: These ladies are incredibly bad ass. I can say I know that for sure.
Margot: I was about to you talk you two up! I have seen a lot of badassery on and off the set and truly to be honest, they were impressive when we first met and by the end of this film just proved to be even more impressive as women, actors and practically stunt performers by that point as well.
I mean, those stunts. Honeys, you must’ve come away with some bruises…
Jurnee: Honey, listen. There were too many. I mean like shoulders, knees but the bruises you just lived with. The makeup artists, they covered them up. I feel like we were always falling or hitting. The stunt team, 87-11, had us really making contact with each other and so we’re really fighting each other. We were wearing padding in certain areas where you get hit but still, we lived in a constant state of pain.
Mary Elisabeth: But it’s more fun to make contact. That’s true!
Craig Gibson for Warner Bros
Were there any accidental hits where you’re like, ‘sorry babes, I totally actually hit you there?’
Mary Elisabeth: Yeah, that happens!
Jurnee: All the time. Towards the end, there is this massive fight sequence and I totally kicked the guy in his neck. I was supposed to aim for his chest, went a little too high and went in his neck. There was little bit of rage.
Jurnee, you were training for this when you were still nursing your son – how was that for you?
Jurnee: I still had that mom bod for sure – I mean, was still nursing him. It was a lot because when you’re nursing, your joints are different, they’re looser and there’s a technical term for it that I can’t remember because I have mom brain. But it was hard to try to juggle it all. But I didn’t want to wean him because of my work. Like, psychologically I thought I can’t do that, which you totally could, by the way. Like, no need to kill yourself ladies! Training made me feel so incredibly strong. After you have a child, you have a completely different body and I kind of dealt with a little bit of postpartum insecurities about my different body. But this really helped me feel incredibly strong where I wasn’t really so concerned about how my tits or butt changed. I just felt like, “Whoa, I feel stronger than I’ve ever felt in my life.” Then I walked away feeling like, sh*t, I’m a warrior, I can do anything.
You’re such amazing role models for strong, powerful women everywhere in Birds of Prey. How much did you learn about the power of your own body image by playing these roles?
Margot: You’re doing all these stunts and to film anything takes so much longer than you’d ever expect. You end up doing a stunt scene for 12 hours and you’re doing it for a long time straight. You really want to be as strong as you possibly can be, and you want the endurance to be able to keep shooting. Because as soon as you get tired, that’s when you get injured. So, you really do feel so strong at the end of it. It’s pretty amazing. Your strength is far more important than the aesthetic at some point. You get to this point where you think, I don’t really care what I look like right now. I just want to make sure I can keep doing this because I got another six hours to go.
Mary Elisabeth: I have to say I really appreciate the fact that a certain body image or type or diet was never ever brought up to me once on the set of this film. No one ever said, “Oh we want you to look like this in terms of your body.” It was just like, “be strong. Learn how to do these movements and whatever that does to your body, great because that’s real” That was really, really great.
Mary Elizabeth, during the GLAMOUR cover interview you said to me, “we could take it to 11 without feeling like we were pissing off the guys.” How novel was this female dominated set for you?
Jurnee: Really different. You know what you’re saying about pissing off the guys is kind of true. I often find, one, you feel often alone because you’re one of the only women on set. And then also there’s this really weird competition. I don’t know if you have experienced this, but oftentimes my male costars compete with me in this really strange way. Not all the time, but I’ve experienced it in really weird ways and I’m like, “Dude, I’m not your competition.” I’m like, “Trust me, we’re not going for the same roles. Okay?”
And there’s this stereotype about how competitive women are and there was none of that with us on set. Everyone was so supportive, and we really pushed each other hard. I mean, everyone was cheering each other on. It’s so complimentary like, “Oh my gosh, your kicks are so amazing, Mary.” It was such a love fest between all of us and it was really refreshing. I feel like that tone was set by Margot and Sue and Kathy, and they made it such a safe space for us to fail, for us to do ugly faces, for us to suck in a scene, for us to fall flat on our faces. I feel incredibly grateful to have worked in an environment like that and I hope that’s the new normal.
Do you think it’s changing, guys? Can you see it becoming the new normal?
Mary Elisabeth: Slowly.
Margot: We have a long way to go. We’ve got a long way to go, but for sure I can see the shift.
Margot, you set up your own production company, LuckyChap Entertainment which is all about championing female voices in film. You actually walked into Warner Brothers and pitched Birds of Prey yourself, were you nervous?
Margot: I don’t get nervous when I’m pitching something like that, I just get really determined for them to see my point of view. At the time, four and a half years ago when I pitched it, it was a crazy idea to say, “I really want to do a female ensemble girl gang action film with an R rating.” At that point the trailers for Deadpool hadn’t even come out. Like no one had seen an R rated film in the Marvel or DC space. So, it was met with hesitation for sure as this is all very much before Me Too and Time’s Up. It was a new idea to be proposing and it took a lot of work. I said, “if we make it for a certain budget, I don’t see why it shouldn’t be successful.”
I also just really wanted Harley to be able to hang out with all the girls on screen. I wanted her to have a girl gang. I hang out with a girl gang all the time in real life, and then I rarely see it in movies, and I don’t know why. I think there’s a misconception that women don’t like action films or can’t handle an R rating. We need like a PG rom com, which, trust me, I love them, but I also love all kinds of movies. I also felt like from a business point of view, there was a gap in the market from a personal point of view, too. There was a creative itch and just a personal yearning to hang out with more actresses on set.
Margot, we spoke before about how you have overcome confidence issues and imposter syndrome. So, this must be an amazing moment for you that Birds of Prey is on the verge of release?
Margot: Yeah, it’s really weird. It’s like your baby for so long and then it’s like the baby’s going off to college and I’m like, “ah, I hope the world appreciates you.” I do want other people to see it and I do want studio heads to say, “Oh wow, that’s a great business proposition. Let’s do that: This is good business.” It’s not just for fun, like this is more women buy movie tickets than men.
What do you think Birds of Prey has taught you about the power of girl power playing these roles?
Mary Elisabeth: It was an incredibly special experience for me just to be a part of it and I think now that we’re bringing it out, it’s hitting home even harder how special it is and how much it means and how much to me it really matters, in my life and my career and in the scheme of movies. The fact that we’ve got this big budget comic book, DC R rated girl gang action flick – no one’s ever seen before. It was so special to be a part of. But now that we’re bringing it out to the world, I feel so honoured and grateful that this is the project I’m a part of.
The Spice Girls are going to be very proud when they see this. That’s for sure…
Margot: Someone likened us to the Spice Girls today and I was like, “There could be no higher praise.” That was amazing.
Jurnee: Growing up I had all these amazing super heroines in my personal life, in my real life like my mom, my sister, my aunt – so many mentors that I looked up to. But I didn’t get a chance to see women of colour on screen playing superheroes or see that many women of all kinds, honestly, in these comic book movies that I loved growing up. I feel representation matters. I feel that it’s really unfortunate that so many of us had to grow up with such a gap in art. I think there’s so many people now who are like, “Listen, we don’t need a seat at the table. We’ll build our own damn table.” As moviegoers we’re just hungry to see the world reflected on screen. The world is not just a heterosexual male gaze of a world, right?
Mary Elisabeth: Like Jurnee was saying, representation matters. I can remember watching films when I was young and seeing girls that looked like me and having that inspire me to become an actor one day. It’s not right that that was something that happened for me and it didn’t happen for other girls. So of course I want to be a part of films like this, but I also want to be a part of films that are showcasing people of every kind and every nationality, race and culture because I think that does matter a lot and I’m grateful that I’m a part of something that’s contributing to that.
Every character in Birds of Prey is fighting for their own emancipation of some degree. How do you kick everyday sexism in the balls like these characters do when you experience it?
Margot: Definitely not in the way Harley does, for better or worse. Probably for better, it would be illegal! But I took a long hard look at myself a couple of years ago and I thought, okay, what are your strengths? How can you do something positive and play to your strengths? And what opportunities do you have? What platform do you have? And at what point can you use that platform in the most effective way? So, I realised that I am better doing it through my work. That’s where it comes across more most authentically. Then I waited until my career reached a point where I could get films greenlit and when I could get meetings with certain directors, writers and studio heads. When I had my ducks lined up in a row and I was ready to try and actually attack the statistics.
Although some people are really great about doing it on social media or talking about it or educating people about it, I don’t feel like that’s my strength as much as it is making a film that has that messaging behind it. I feel like that’s where my strength is and that’s how I battle it, I guess. When it comes to one-on-one confrontation, that’s not my strong point. Every year I get older, the better I get at saying, “No, don’t talk to me like that. No, take me seriously.” But that’s kind of coming with age, to be honest. I still could be better.
Margot you love a Clapham night out, especially Infernos (the night club) and Harley loves a night out…
Margot: Harley would love Infernos. She would love it.
Are you going to take these delightful two castmates with you on the night out to Infernos? Girls, get your clutches…
Jurnee: Are we going?
Margot: Do you want to go to Infernos?
Mary Elisabeth: We have to go. Can we go? What is it?
Margot: It’s not open tonight. You’ve got to wait till Friday night. We are off Friday night, actually. I am so down if you want.
Jurnee: I am so down. I don’t know what this is, but I’m down.
Mary Elisabeth: We’re committed.
Margot:I also would like to embarrass one of my best friends here right now. Katty is back there. And she loves a night out in Infernos, so we have a fourth member of the gang right now.
Josh: The Inferno four, Clapham get ready!
Birds of Prey is in cinemas on 7th February 2020
