- “Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)” stars Margot Robbie as the titular character and centers on the formation of a girl gang.
- Robbie and her costars have revealed plenty of things about the making of the movie, like the fact that her transformation took approximately two and a half hours.
- Jurnee Smollett-Bell (Dinah Lance/Black Canary) said that she took home Harley’s bat prop and asked for a woman of color to be her hairstylist for the film.
- The hyena in the movie is actually played by a large dog that was CGI’d to look like a hyena.
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“Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)” centers on the return of Margot Robbie’s fan-favorite DC Comics character as she forms a girl gang in Gotham.
Following Harley’s breakup with the Joker, she teams up with Helena Bertinelli/Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Dinah Lance/Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) to take down a villain named Roman Sionis, also known as Black Mask (Ewan McGregor), who’s made 12-year-old Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) his target after she pickpockets a diamond.
Keep reading for some fun facts about “BoP,” from the props the stars took home from the set to the way they relaxed after an exhausting day of stunt work.
Smollett-Bell took Harley’s bat that says “goodnight,” in addition to some jewelry worn by her character.
“I shouldn’t be talking about this on camera, they’re going to come knocking on my door,” the actress joked during an interview with MTV.
Costar Robbie also revealed that she took a pair of shorts that ended up not being used in the movie, plus one of Smollett's tops. Meanwhile, Basco was allowed to take one of her character's pink casts.
Basco worked with a magician to learn some sleight of hand tricks.
The 13-year-old actress appeared on "Good Morning America" and said she worked with someone from The Magic Castle, who taught her "how to steal some wallets and some money."
Bruce the hyena is just a big dog that was altered in post-production.
After Harley's breakup with the Joker, she gets a hyena named Bruce "after that hunky Wayne guy."
"We consulted an expert - a man who actually has a trained hyena in California - and it was confirmed that they are incredibly dangerous and, we learned, if a hyena touches anything, he considers it to be his," Robbie explained in the "BoP" production notes.
She continued: "'Will he sit on a couch?' we asked. 'Yes, but then it's his couch, and he'll eat it - and likely you - if someone tries to take it away from him.' It would be like having a massive, deadly diva on set."
Instead, Robbie told Jimmy Fallon that they "hired a really, really big dog and then CGI'd the fur to look like a hyena."
The actress also told BBC Radio 1's Ali Plumb that she wished they could have included Harley's two hyenas named Bud and Lou from the comics, but "to CGI a hyena is actually a tremendous cost."
The cast would unwind by drinking alcoholic beverages in Perez's trailer.
"We trained for over five months to be able to do the stunts in the film and felt incredibly powerful and strong, but it kicked our butts and we definitely had our moment where we were gathering in Rosie's trailer and taking shots," Smollett-Bell said on "GMA." "She has the greatest drinks."
Robbie filmed two dance numbers for "BoP," but only one made it into the movie.
The actress told MTV that she, McGregor, and Chris Messina took dance lessons and learned choreography, but "couldn't fit them all in the movie."
Smollett-Bell put a sticky note on her trailer mirror that had an inspiring quote from Alice Walker, which the actress related to her character.
"Every day I would look at it because it would remind me of her and also the struggle I think we all go through in wanting to achieve your full potential," Smollett-Bell said on "The View."
"It's this Alice Walker quote that I had on my mirror and she says, 'The most common way we give our power away is by thinking we don't have any,' and that's literally the arc of [Black Canary]," the actress continued. "She has this power, but she's in her own way."
It took about two and a half hours to transform Robbie into Harley.
The actress told BBC Radio 1's Plumb that applying the body paint was the most time-consuming. Her on-screen look also required fake tattoos, a wig, and fake bruises.
Basco doodled on the cast her character wore in "BoP."
"They sent me two or three casts and I just drew all over them, so all of the stuff on the actual casts is my art," the actress said during an interview with Fandango. "I just sat there for like, an hour or two and they made like 15 of them. That was definitely fun in that it was my armor."
Smollett-Bell asked for a woman of color to be her hairstylist for the movie, and Robbie (one of the executive producers) backed her up.
"In pre-production when we were creating the look for the hair, for me, it was very important to bring a woman of color on in the hair department to create the look for Black Canary - my hair, my texture, the kind of blonde we were going for," Smollett-Bell said during an interview with BUILD Series.
The actress went on to say that she called Robbie and explained that "it's just different" when styling a woman of color's hair. Smollett-Bell added that Robbie and producer Sue Kroll "were open" and immediately agreed to bring in the hairstylist she requested, Nikki Nelms (who has also worked with Yara Shahidi and Zoë Kravitz).
Harley's breakfast sandwiches were made from duck eggs, not chicken eggs, because Robbie is allergic to the chicken egg whites.
Robbie told Fandango that the protein gives her migraines.