UNDER THE GUNN

GRITTIER, MORE VIOLENT SUPERVILLAINS EVOKE OLD-FASHIONED WAR MOVIES

If The Suicide Squad had been written by anyone other than James Gunn, Margot Robbie might have passed on her third go-round as Harley Quinn.

“No one could pull this off. This is so weird and specific and big ... no one could pull this off,” the Oscar nominee says, pausing for emphasis, “except James Gunn.”

After directing two Guardians of the Galaxy movies for Marvel, Gunn has jumped over to DC for a reboot of its Suicide Squad franchise. The new entry (out Friday in theatres) finds Robbie’s Harley reuniting with her original Squad teammates Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) and Col. Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) for a new mission — along with a whole cast of new conscripted villains.

Still infused with some of the lighthearted humour comic book movie fans have come to expect from Gunn’s films, this R-rated, rule-breaking Suicide Squad is decidedly more violent and foul-mouthed than any other entry in the DC Extended Universe of movies, with its nods to throwback war movies like Kelly’s Heroes or The Dirty Dozen.

But one thing is for sure, they are ready to get recruited back into the Squad as soon as they are asked.

“Whenever they’ll let us,” Robbie says as Kinnaman nods along. After all, the best thing about acting in a comic book movie is no one ever really dies, right?

Q This is such a wild and crazy movie. How did you react to James’ script, and did you have any doubts he was going to be able to do all the outrageous stuff that happens in The Suicide Squad? Robbie: I was very excited to read his script. I knew it was going to be great because I love his films and I know that he loves comic books, so I thought there was no way it wasn’t going to be great. But it was still incredibly surprising. You still can’t get used to the direction his bizarre sense of humour is going to go in sometimes ... But it was everything I could have hoped for and more. He’s a brilliant director to work with.

Kinnaman: He knows the genre so well. He knows how far he can take things and how irreverent he can be. But after seeing the film, what struck me was how he creates these little moments; these pockets of sincerity and poetic beauty that I thought were very surprising. He was able to create them without it feeling pretentious or unwarranted or unearned.

Q Margot, it’s your third time playing Harley Quinn. How did James change things up for you this time? A Harley is at a very different stage in her life. When we first met her, she was in a relationship with Mr. J and I think that really dictated a lot of her behaviour and everything, right down to the clothes she was wearing and the tattoos she had on her body. In Birds of Prey, fresh from the breakup with Mr. J, the knock-on effect of a relationship that had been so all-consuming affected her behaviour and the trouble she gets in. That also ended up affecting everything right down to what she ends up wearing and who she’s gravitating towards. In this movie, she’s in a far steadier place where she seems to be genuinely OK with not being with Mr. J. She’s ready to find romance in other places, which is very entertaining, and she’s in mission mode. But there’s still a lot of the old aspects about Harley that we know and love.

Q Joel, this is a much looser Rick. He’s got a sense of humour and he wears some pretty amusing outfits. What was it like to play this version?

A I loved it. Because this movie is sort of its own thing and it lives in its own universe, it was fun to go into this and not feel restrained by what I had done in the initial iteration of the character. But it was a challenge. I have to say I was intimidated by some of these lines that are obviously really funny and written to be funny. I haven’t really been asked to say lines like that before in my career.

So that was definitely a challenge and it pulled me out of my comfort zone, for sure.

Q There are a lot of new Squad members this time around. Who was your favourite and who has the most ridiculous powers? Robbie: I remember when we did the first movie with (director) David (Ayer) I was saying, “But where’s King Shark? We can’t do a Suicide Squad movie without King Shark.” So I was really excited when I saw in the script that King Shark would be joining the Squad. He was always my favourite in the comics. I was also excited that Thinker was going to be in this film because I’ve enjoyed Thinker in the comics as well.

As for who has the most ridiculous powers, it would be easy to say Polka-dot Man, but his polka dots are pretty gnarly. It’s not silly at all. Maybe Weasel is kind of ... no, wait, TDK! What help is he at all?

Kinnaman: TDK is useless. He is absolutely useless ... and he has such a punchable face.