Director Cathy Yan's Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) doesn't just feature the cinematic return of Harley Quinn and the feature film debut of a number of other high-profile female DC characters. It also brings Ewan McGregor and Chris Messina into a superhero world for the first time, with the two playing Roman Sionis/Black Mask and his loyal henchman Victor Zsasz, respectively.
During an interview with CBR and other media outlets, McGregor and Messina revealed their thoughts on being in a superhero film and what it's like to be playing supervillains.
Discussing what drew him to the film, McGregor explained, "I like the way Cathy -- first off all the amazing female characters and the fact that it's a female-driven movie, female-made movie -- the writer, the director, the producer. It's a film that tackles misogyny and tackles it in an extreme way but also in a mundane way that women have to deal with us blokes on a daily basis. I don't know of another film that does that in a humorous way. I liked that about it. And for the way Cathy portrays Gotham City and how it's closer to our world than other films I've seen with Gotham in it."
Messina noted that what stood out to him was how this version of Gotham "had the vibe of like a Boroughs of New York, or the Boroughs of LA. It has a 90's sheen to it that was really exciting." Messina was also ecstatic with getting to play Black Mask's dedicated and grisly henchman, Zsasz. "He's obsessed with Roman," he said. "[Roman's] so charming and funny and powerful; and then when he turns, it's very violent. Victor's in love with that. We had a blast."
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The proliferation of superhero movies in recent years has seen many of the biggest stars in the world making their way into the genre. Asked if being in a superhero film was different than how he approached his other work, McGregor said, "I don't think that it is. I don't think that it is [different] to play. I don't think you can play it like that. As an actor, you're just trying to play the character, the truth of what you know or what you're inventing about your character. There is a different style or world for everything you do. So you sort of discover that with the director and the other actors and the designs and the costumes. You find that as you go along. Every film inhabits a slightly different world. I didn't really come into this thinking 'oh, this is a superhero film, I have to act in a different way.'"
Messina noted that what might separate comic book films slightly from other genres is that "I think it is a tricky tone, which I think [Ewan] balanced so beautifully, is that it's funny. There's some really funny stuff on the page. But then it's extremely violent and dangerous. You have to balance that out, and there were turns in there that you have to navigate." But he ultimately agreed with McGregor, saying, "You definitely didn't prepare it in any other way than you did for other stuff."
Directed by Cathy Yan from a script by Christina Hodson, Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) stars Margot Robbie, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rosie Perez, Ewan McGregor, Ella Jay Basco, Steven Williams, Derek Wilson, Dana Lee, Francois Chau, Charlene Amoia, Chris Messina and Matthew Willig. The film is scheduled for release on Feb. 7.