Director Cathy Yan's Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) will bring a new vision of the DC Universe to the big screen, giving Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn another chance to leave her mark on a new neon-lit version of Gotham City.Among those joining her are Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress and Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Black Canary. But it wasn't only those characters that attracted the actors to the film.

The three stars spoke to CBR and other media outlets Thursday in Hollywood about what drew them to Birds of Prey, and why they're so excited for audiences to see the film.

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Robbie isn't only the film's star, she's also one of the producers. What's more, she's been invested in bringing Harley back to cinemas since debuting in the role in 2016's Suicide Squad.

"I'd obviously gotten to play Harley before in Suicide Squad, but we are seeing a very different version of Harley in this film," she said. "A lot of my conversations [with Yan] were like, 'What's Harley like when she's a little more vulnerable?' More and more, she's kind of lost the security of knowing that the Joker will probably get her out of any trouble that she gets herself into, because she can't get out of it herself. But soon she finds herself in trouble and starts thinking, 'Yeah, maybe I can't do this alone.' It was really just exploring a more vulnerable, more erratic Harley. Harley Quinn being vulnerable manifests itself in even crazier ways."

For Winstead, it was less about the superheroes that first attracted her to the film as much as the pedigree of her collaborators.

"I was initially so excited to talk to Cathy about the project because of who she is and what she's done," she said. "Dead Pigs was such an amazing film. And because of Margot's involvement and her really taking the reins as a producer ... knowing she was really cherry-picking people along the way based on her tastes, that was really exciting. When I met with Cathy and she described her vision of Huntress and her vision of Gotham, I was so excited. I was in. I was so into something that was really female-driven and R-rated and badass and just very new. It felt like a new vision for Gotham, and that got me really excited."

Despite being among the older heroes in the DC Universe, Black Canary has never appeared in a theatrically released film. There's a lot of history to explore, which Smollett-Bell said was a major part of figuring out how to play the character. "A lot of my conversations with Cathy early on were about the origin story of Black Canary," she said. "She was written so many years ago, over 70 years ago, and she'd been retconned so many times.

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"It was really about honing in on 'OK, what is the origin story for Black Canary in this DC Universe?'" Smollett-Bell continued. "Really honing in on this idea of being in her mother's shadow or surpassing her mother in her greatness... when you actually have greater power than your mother but you don't want to do what your mother did. One question I kept asking is why is she in this club, working for this [Roman]? So we really had to fine-tune and hone in on the whats, the whys, the whos. It was really exciting and fun for me to explore this woman who's so powerful and completely in her own way of her own power."

At the end of the day, however, all three actors are thrilled to see this kind of wild film brought to theaters.

"I think [audiences] are just going to be blown away by an explosion of color and action," Robbie said. "It's a wild ride, has incredible music - a really cool lineup of young female artists -- the design aspect is pretty incredible. I think ultimately it's fun to see a group of women come together and kick-ass. It doesn't matter if you're a boy or a girl, you get a pumped up when the Birds are together."

Winstead agreed, adding, "It's violent, it's messy, it's peppy, it's fun, it's irreverent. I think there's something really liberating about that, not just for us but also for the audience watching it."

Smollet-Bell followed up on that idea, saying, "I think it's always fun to watch wild people tripping and stumbling and picking themselves up and stumbling more... I think that's what was so refreshing about Cathy's take. Seeing what happens when all these flawed people come together, who struggle with their own demons and try to emancipate themselves from something or someone or from themselves, what happens when they come together and are forced to work together. It's just fun, it's a fun movie."

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 opens Feb. 7.

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