When the DC comic book movie Suicide Squad hit theaters in 2016, it was met with mixed reviews from critics but proved a major box office success, grossing over $746 million worldwide. While the film told the story of a team of imprisoned supervillains recruited by a secret government agency to go on dangerous black ops missions, it was Margot Robbie’s portrayal of the gleefully psychotic Harley Quinn that stole the show.
Robbie’s performance was widely praised as one of the standout elements of Suicide Squad, with many critics singling out her whirlwind energy, humorous line delivery, and surprisingly sympathetic character arc. Her arresting screen presence and the film’s savvy marketing campaign also made Robbie’s Harley Quinn a major pop culture sensation, arguably rivaling Wonder Woman and Catwoman as one of DC Comics’ most iconic female characters.
So who is the talented actress who managed to bring one of Batman’s most popular foes thrillingly to life?
From Neighbors to Gotham City
Margot Elise Robbie was born July 2nd, 1990 in Dalby, Queensland, Australia. From an early age, she was interested in acting, and studying drama in high school. At 17, she moved from her farm to Melbourne to seriously pursue an acting career. After some early work in commercials and independent films, Robbie had her big break playing the girl next door in the short-lived ABC TV series Pan Am.
Her first major film role came with Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street in 2013. As Naomi Lapaglia, the trophy wife of Leonardo DiCaprio’s high-living stockbroker, Robbie sizzled up the screen in a star-making performance that led to roles in romantic dramas like Z for Zachariah and Focus.
But it was her hilarious turn as the unhinged sorority girl in the hit comedy Neighbors opposite Seth Rogen and Zac Efron that demonstrated her talent for combining sex appeal with inspired comedic madness, a combination that made her perfectly cast as Harley Quinn.
Harley Quinn Returns to the Squad
After lighting up the screen in 2016’s Suicide Squad, Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn captured so many fans Warner Brothers has an entire movie franchise built around her merry murderess misadventures.
But Quinn’s story picks back up on consoles and PCs next year with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. The hotly anticipated action title from famed Arkham series creators Rocksteady Studios returns gamers to the chaotic, blood-soaked streets of Gotham City alongside Harley and her outlaw crew.
This co-op multiplayer game lets players team up online to raise hell as DC’s worst supervillains. Quinn features as one of the main playable characters, bringing her signature mix of bullets, baseball bats, and gleefully crazy carnage.
Set after the events of the first Suicide Squad film, Kill the Justice League sees Amanda Waller once again recruit Harley Quinn for a deadly mission fraught with wicked possibilities. It seems Superman has gone rogue, murdering his Justice League allies, laying waste to Metropolis, and establishing new tyrannical rule. Now this unhinged Man of Steel plans to extend his violent reign to other cities, starting with Gotham.
Never one to kowtow to any authority figure no matter how powerful, Quinn eagerly signs on to Waller’s scheme to assassinate the dangerous Kryptonian. Harley and fellow iconic supervillains like Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and King Shark from Amanda’s latest black ops Squad.
Their dangerous mission will take gamers across a dynamic open world vision of Batman’s crime-ridden hometown as the Squad battles rogue superheroes and LexCorps robotic security forces while closing in on the murderous Superman.
Signature Silliness and Mayhem
Fans eager for signature Harley Quinn chaos are in luck. Kill the Justice League promises plenty of opportunities to wield Quinn’s crazy creativity against overpowered heroes like Flash and Green Lantern.
The Origins of Harley Quinn
Dr. Harleen Quinzel first appeared in Batman: The Animated Series in 1992. As an Arkham Asylum psychiatrist treating the Joker, she found herself seduced by his unique psychotic charms into becoming his deeply devoted sidekick and toxic girlfriend. Calling herself Harley Quinn in a harlequin pun on her real name, she soon established herself as a fully unhinged member of the Dark Knight’s rogues’ gallery in both the animated series and DC comic books.
Known for her Brooklyn accent, clown-themed costume, irrepressibly loony energy, surprisingly formidable fighting skills with cartoon-style mallets and guns, and utterly devoted, codependent relationship with her beloved “Mistah J”, the Joker, Harley Quinn quickly became an immensely popular Batman villain. Her backstory with Gotham City’s Clown Prince of Crime and hilariously unbalanced personality gave her an unexpected depth and appeal.
who played Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad:
- Margot Robbie played Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad. She was born in Dalby, Queensland, Australia on July 2, 1990. She began acting at a young age and moved to Melbourne to pursue her career at 17. Her big break came in 2013 when she starred in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street.
- Robbie was praised for her performance as Harley Quinn, with critics calling it one of the best things about the film. She captured Quinn’s unique blend of sweetness and sinisterness, and her performance was both funny and heartbreaking.
- Robbie prepared for the role by doing extensive research on Harley Quinn, including reading the comics and watching the animated series. She also underwent physical training to learn how to fight and do acrobatics.
- Robbie’s performance as Harley Quinn was a major breakout role for her and made her a star. She has since reprised the role in several other films, including Birds of Prey and The Suicide Squad.
As one of the few female foes in Batman’s world, Harley Quinn also introduced an anarchic, chaotically feminist energy to DC’s often male-dominated comics and stories. As an emanation of the transcendently evil Joker’s toxic charisma, Harley Quinn demonstrated even deranged supervillainesses could capture fans’ imaginations.
Preparing to Play the Mad Muse
When David Ayer, writer/director of gritty action flicks like Training Day and End of Watch, took the helm of the Suicide Squad film, finding an actress who could do justice to Harley Quinn’s unique appeal was crucial. As Ayer put it:
“Harley’s character has dimension. She walked this line between sinister and sweet. You fall for her immediately but can never tell which direction she’ll go. I needed an actor who could break your heart while kicking your ass.”
Margot Robbie managed to capture Ayer’s attention with her performance in The Wolf of Wall Street, which he described as “delightfully unhinged”. After dazzling him with her extensive preparation for playing such an iconic Batman villain during her audition, Robbie won the role.
To ready herself, Robbie put intensive work into understanding everything that made Harley Quinn such a compelling character: her tragic origin; tempestuously passionate relationship with “Mr. J.”; brash Brooklyn accent: a blithely sadistic sense of humor; lethal acrobatic fighting style incorporating agility and gymnastics with improvised weapons like bats and mallets; mercurial mood swings between bubbly enthusiasm and violent anger; provocatively sexualized appearance mixing childlike innocence with confident seductiveness; and underlying mental and emotional fragility.
As Robbie described Quinn:
“There is a roller coaster of emotions there and together we made a pretty unstable character which creates quite unpredictable behavior…She has a huge spectrum, so that was fun to play, the childishness, the schizo, manipulating.”
To master Harley’s unique mannerisms and fighting style, Robbie also went through extensive physical training for several months before filming began:
“I did gymnastics training, I did weapons training, I did acrobatics…Rollerblading, dance choreography, and also just understanding the mind and the mentality of someone that’s gone through what she’s gone through.”
This intensive preparation paid off, allowing Robbie to fully channel everything that made Harley such a magnetic outlaw. Critics across the board praised Robbie’s whirlwind performance as one of the best elements of the film.
Stealing the Show
Suicide Squad focused mainly on Deadshot (Will Smith), a gruff assassin coerced into joining the team, as well as Jared Leto’s new take on Batman’s eternal nemesis, a more “modern” Joker covered in unnerving tattoos. But Robbie managed to steal every one of her scenes as Quinn, lighting up the screen with demented energy.
We first meet Dr. Harleen Quinzel a relatively normal psychiatrist interviewing the Joker at Arkham Asylum. But it isn’t long before she falls under the hypnotic sway of Leto’s disturbing villain. The next we see Quinn, she’s happily being “baptized” by him, pumped full of electroshock and chemicals that bleach her skin and transform her into his devoted, smiling acolyte.
Escaping from Arkham, Quinn throws herself gleefully into her transformation as a merry outlaw, moving like a violent windup toy wielding a baseball bat and machine gun with manic glee. Robbie perfectly captures Harley’s strange appeal – her bubbly enthusiasm and humorous wisecracks make her engaging company even as her hair-trigger temper keeps her dangerous company. Even as she mows down enemies or threatening gangsters without blinking, Quinn can collapse in tears or be vulnerable pleading before the toxic man she worships so long as it gets her what she wants from her beloved, abusive “Mr. J”.
Standout Scenes
Two scenes especially demonstrate what makes Robbie’s Quinn such an irresistible ball of manic energy:
Her introduction in the movie has Quinn diving into a vat of bleach, emerging with her signature two-tone hair and beaming a braces-filled smile as she revels in her twisted “transformation sequence”. Declaring herself powerfully and perfectly “free” captures Quinn’s appeal – despite her abject submission to the Joker, Harley feels born anew by fully embracing her warped self.
Later, alone in her cell after her boyfriend abandons her, Harley gives in to maudlin heartbreak before a guard begins making crude advances through her bars, telling her to strip for him. In a lightning-fast mercurial shift, Quinn suddenly smiles invitingly only to grab the guard’s head and smash his face into her bars over and over. Her instant pivot from melodramatic sorrow to gory violence demonstrates how unpredictable yet compelling Quinn can be.
Throughout the movie, Robbie perfectly rides the wild, chaotic swings of her character’s emotions while making clear why Harley keeps capturing hearts – she’s a force of nature who defiantly revels in who she is, no matter how unhinged that might be.
A New Icon is Born
Suicide Squad broke Robbie out as a new generation star and her Harley Quinn left an indelible mark on pop culture, arguably rivaling the popularity of Joaquin Phoenix’s disturbed Joker.
Robbie’s Quinn brought in mountains of revenue for Warner Brothers consumer products, becoming 2016’s most popular Halloween costume choice. Her iconic look spawned endless imitators and merchandise items, from tee shirts to action figures. Over a billion YouTube hours were dedicated to clips and tributes to Robbie’s loony supervillainess as well.
The character’s unprecedented popularity inspired Warner Brothers to build an R-rated “girl gang” spinoff around Robbie’s Quinn creatively titled Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). The 202 film saw Robbie eagerly return to produce and reprise her Quinn, now leading a deliriously fun-loving