Margot Robbie says she just wanted a girl gang action film and so went on to produce 'Birds of Prey'
Margot Robbie, Rosie Perez, Jurnee Smollett, and Ella Jay Basco appeared on daytime talk show 'The View' to promote their upcoming movie 'Birds of Prey'. In the show, Robbie confessed that she wanted to see a girl-gang action film on screen, so she also turned producer for the film.
Speaking about starring as Harley Quinn and producing the film, Robbie pointed out, "we had a lot of fun making it, so I am glad you had fun watching it. So we want people to walk out feeling pumped up, excited. It's been in the making for a long time when I was still shooting 'Suicide Squad' the first time."
She added, "It's when I originally pitched the idea and through researching Harley I read old (comics)... there were so many more amazing characters in the DC universe that we hadn't seen on screen. 'Birds of Prey' was a particular offshoot of the comics that I fell in love with. So I just wanted a girl-gang action film on screen. We didn't have one."
The segment also began with Robbie confessing that she did not know that Rosie Perez had once worked on 'The View'. Whoopi Goldberg addressed Perez and said, "Good to see ya!" She continued, "So you have been a part of The View family since you were a co-host here," and added that it was really good to have Perez back on the show.
Speaking about how the role of Detective Rene Montoya happened to her, Perez opened up, "the director gave me a call and asked me if I would be interested and I said, yeah." She also added, "I am a woman of a certain age now. I just convinced the Warner Bros and they welcomed me to the DC family and that was great great honor."
Perez also spoke about what this role meant to her: "I wanted to play Rene Montoya not only to represent a Latina but also to represent a strong woman who is tenacious, had a high moral code, yet was complicated and fluid."
She also spoke about working with her co-stars: "It was difficult because of these young bucks... and I was like Grandma." To which there was a chorus of "Not True" from Robbie, Smollett, and Basco. Then Smollett also shared a bit about the character that she plays -- Black Canary -- and said that there were many things about her character that she related to.
"In my process of researching the character and going back to the comics and stuff, I just fell in love with her. In our film, when we meet her she hasn't yet become the Black Canary that we know her to be. She is this fierce street fighter, this martial artist. She is hiding her voice, has a secret that she's a metahuman. She's got this powerful canary cry and I had this like a posted sticker on my mirror in my trailer and it would remind me of her. It is also the struggle I think we all kind of go through in wanting to achieve your full potential." She quoted Alice Walker: "The most common way we give our power away is by thinking we don't have it.'' Smollett explained that this is literally the arc of Canary.
Basco who plays the role of Casandra in the film is a 13-year-old who is making her debut with 'Birds of Prey'. Speaking of how she landed the role, Basco said that she had actually just got home from school and her mom and dad had their camera out. "They looked so weird. And my agents were on the phone and they were like videotaping me and the agent told me 'you booked the job'. It was so emotional for me and my parents were screaming their heads off."