Margot Robbie Compares Harley Quinn To An Iconic Johnny Depp Character

Margot Robbie brought the devilish comic book character Harley Quinn to life in 2016's "Suicide Squad," and she thinks the character shares a link with another iconic character of modern cinema. When Robbie was cast as the DC villain, it marked the first time the character was brought into live action for the big screen. Before Robbie, only "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" star Mia Sara previously played the character on the short-lived 2002 television series "Birds of Prey." Robbie put a lot of herself into the performance, including some bizarre talents, and it earned her heaps of critical acclaim despite poor reviews for "Suicide Squad."

She has gone on to star as Quinn in her own "Birds of Prey" for the 2020 theatrical film. She also returned once more as Quinn for James Gunn's 2021 sequel, "The Suicide Squad." The looks of Harley Quinn in the three films have gone on to become mainstays for Halloween costumes and cosplays. Besides iconic looks, Robbie sees more similarities between her character and one Johnny Depp helped immortalize.

In an interview promoting "Birds of Prey," Margot Robbie told BBC Radio 1 that she thinks the film's Harley Quinn is a lot like Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise. She said, "She [Harley Quinn] isn't perfect at all. ... She's also one of those fun characters I think where she can start a movie in one place and ... end in the exact same place, kind of like a Captain Jack Sparrow ... they're not gonna be a different person by the end, but they are gonna do a lot of the wild stuff in between and I think that's always fun."

In a 2018 interview with Collider, Depp sort of explained why Captain Jack, who he notoriously based on Keith Richards, is the way he is, "In the original screenplay Captain Jack was written as a swashbuckler ... I had different ideas for him," the actor said. He continued by claiming that Captain Jack was born in his sauna. "I figured this guy has been on the high seas for the majority of his life and therefore has dealt with inescapable heat to the brain. ... So that gave me the idea that his brain has been parboiled to some degree."

Both of these characters have been "cooked" to some degree. Quinn is morphed in the acid that turns her from a mild-mannered doctor to a murderous psychopath, and Sparrow is cooked in the beating sun at sea. These iconic characters have become constants in the pop culture pantheon. Maybe Quinn and Sparrow always end up right where they started because they can't change. They can learn things on the adventures along the way, but they're always going to be who they're going to be, and nothing or nobody is ever going to change them.