Margot Robbie is fixing plates of pão de queijo, a small Brazilian cheese bun, for me and three other women: Rosie Perez, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. We’re gathered in the conference room of a luxury hotel in São Paulo a few hours ahead of the country’s annual Comic Con, where they’ll promote Birds of Prey, the upcoming movie based on DC Comics’ all-female superhero team. As Robbie places each bun, the group chatters like coworkers at happy hour, but make no mistake: This isn’t an ordinary workplace. It’s a $75 million universe run mostly by women.
Birds of Prey—full title Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)—has a female director, a female writer, and four female leads. A first in the superhero world, but an odd first. “In real life I’m hanging out with a female gang all the time,” says Robbie. “I think girls tend to exist in a hive more so than guys. I thought it was strange that we don’t see that reflected on the screen more often.”
Murmurs of agreement follow before a sly smile from Robbie. “I’m gonna be so gross and take out my Invisalign right now so I can eat the cheese bread.”
Birds of Prey is set in the same world as 2016’s Suicide Squad, DC’s $745 million blockbuster about a group of villains convinced to do good in exchange for less jail time, which made Robbie’s Harley Quinn a breakout star and became Google’s most-searched Halloween costume that year. But calling it a sequel doesn’t feel right. When Birds hits theaters February 7, fans will see a stand-alone journey of Quinn finding herself—and an unlikely squad of women who have her back. The intense fight scenes remain from the original Squad, but Birds is noticeably committed to character development and leans into a juicy Mafia-family revenge plot that would make Scorsese proud.
Also new: director Cathy Yan, writer Christina Hodson, producers that include Robbie, whose production company, LuckyChap, developed and pitched the project to Warner Bros., and a truly female-led cast. This is no chick flick, though: It’s an R-rated action film. In other words, there’s really nothing like it.
“I remember when I was first pitching the project, I was struggling to find comparisons other than Charlie’s Angels, which I adored when I was younger,” Robbie says. “Then I was like, That’s a long time ago, though.”
That’s not the only stereotype being challenged here, either. In an alternate world, a cast of four leading women would have inspired gossip, true or not, about on-set feuds and savage competition. (See Sex and the City 3.) But the vibe I witnessed among Perez, Winstead, Smollett-Bell, and Robbie was warm and easy. And it felt real.
In that conference room, I learn a bond was formed between some of the women—one they describe as a sisterhood—one Sunday night in Perez’s trailer. They’d all hung out before (on Fridays, I’m told, everyone in the cast and crew would wear Hawaiian shirts and drink piña coladas mixed by Robbie). But after rehearsing a particularly exhausting stunt scene, Winstead and Smollett-Bell joined Perez for some of her coquito, a Puerto Rican drink of coconut milk and rum that Robbie, who couldn’t make the get-together, describes as lethal. “She cooked for us and we all cried,” Smollett-Bell says. “We all had therapy sessions with each other.” They’re noticeably reticent when asked what, exactly, was discussed, but Perez throws me a bone: “The world is trash.”
In the days following, the women would seek one another out on set to talk—stolen moments they’d use to check in, vent, or laugh. “We each had vulnerabilities in our personal lives or our professional lives or our bodies while filming,” Smollett-Bell, 33, says. “We all had setbacks and obstacles or knee problems or shoulder problems or personal problems. Yet there was such a camaraderie between us, that sisterhood. It’s so fucking inspiring.”
Birds of Prey has the women playing four very different characters who, in their own ways, are motivated to protect a young girl (Cassandra Cain, played by newcomer Ella Jay Basco) from Ewan McGregor’s villainous Black Mask. Robbie, of course, reprises Quinn, the gleefully maniacal shit stirrer struggling to find herself after splitting with the Joker. Winstead plays Huntress, a mysterious crossbow-wielding fighter seeking revenge. Smollett-Bell’s Black Canary is perhaps the most conflicted—she works for Black Mask, but her moral code keeps her from leaning too far into the dark side. Rounding things out is Perez’s Renee Montoya, a detective in Gotham City’s police department who is fighting against the force’s boys’-club mentality. Each has her own beef with Black Mask, a sadistic crime lord, but they come together by the film’s end to fight the Big Bad. “Isn’t this fun?” Harley asks in her signature nasal pitch as they gear up for the movie’s final battle. “It’s just like a sleepover!”
That unity translated offscreen too. “There was no pecking order going on; it’s just women,” Perez says. “That doesn't happen often where you can call the entire cast and say, ‘Hey.’ That was a very rare and beautiful thing.”
Also rare and beautiful: a set where the women could show up, do their jobs, and not have to worry about fighting against gratuitous nude scenes, lingering camera shots that scan their bodies, and uncomfortably tiny clothing, all known trademarks of action movies filmed by the male gaze for the male gaze. In Birds, the women are undeniably sexy, but they can move in their clothes, which was one mass critique of Harley Quinn’s short shorts and heels in Suicide Squad. (“Were Harley Quinn’s Hotpants Too Sexy?” the Daily Mail wondered.)
“The female gaze just happened inherently because there were mainly women making the decisions,” Robbie, 29, says. “We were all just picking what we thought was cool.”
At 55, Perez says she appreciated the commitment to costumes that felt authentic to the role she was playing. “I didn't feel objectified,” she says. “I’m the oldest one here, and I was dreading the wardrobe.” When she arrived on set, she expected to be fitted in a skintight suit. Instead she’s wearing regular trousers and a button-down, as a real detective would, male or female. “When I saw it, I went, ‘Oh!’ Then, when I saw the other girls, I was like, ‘You look hot! You look hot! You look hot! Yay!’ I was happy. You could be sexy, but you didn’t have to put on the sexiness.”
This freedom from the male gaze allowed for more creativity to actually do the work. Winstead, 35, says, “You’re not scrutinized with, ‘How can she look hotter?’ Which is an experience I’ve definitely had in the past.” Adds Perez: “It’s not like, ‘Let’s just put her in that because her ass is great,’ which I know we’ve all experienced.”
Smollett-Bell credits the general lack of objectification to having Yan and producer Sue Kroll at the helm with Robbie. “I realized, prior to this, how many projects I’ve been on where I’m the only woman on set and how alone I’ve felt,” she says.
By the women’s accounts, this is what I imagine true parity on a film set looks like: a safe environment where everyone can show up and do their best work, one in which female stars get the recognition they deserve, no questions asked. Perez says that hit home for her when she saw the movie’s official poster for the first time. She was surprised it was just the four women front and center. “In a lot of films, the male always gets the first billing no matter how big or small their part is,” she says. “Being in this business for so long, you still think the men are going to show up, you know? It felt very, very empowering.”
At this point in the conversation, I ask what each woman has learned from the others—and they all turn to Perez. “Why did you look at me?” she asks. “Because you’re just wise,” Smollett-Bell replies. “We all have girl crushes on you, in case you can’t tell.”
They take a moment to reminisce about the wrap party—a night when everyone danced so much that Perez had to put ice packs on her knees after. Then, a beat. Perez decides to share instead what she appreciated about the other women. First, she turns to Robbie. “I appreciated how Margot can be in charge but not make you feel less-than,” she says. “Sometimes when actors are also producers, they feel that they have to wear that hat too strongly. That wasn’t the case, so I appreciated how she kept her emotions in control all the time. Her professionalism is outstanding.”
And Winstead, Perez tells me, is the kindest person she’s ever met. (“I’m going to cry!” Winstead replies.)
As for Smollett-Bell: “With Jurnee, what I appreciated was that she’s strong. She’s so, so strong,” Perez says, directing her words to her costar. “You stand up for yourself in a very, very specific way. But inside, you’re so soft.”
The women all echo Perez’s comments, but Robbie has one final appreciation to share. “Rosie, who’s a legend in this industry already, can still show up like it’s brand-new, like she's never said these words before. It always feels fresh and present. It’s so thrilling to work opposite someone who makes you forget you’re on a set. The set kind of melts away for a second. That only happens if people are present, and if they really show up for that scene with everything they have. Everyone here did that. I loved it. I loved it.”
Anna Moeslein is a senior editor at Glamour.
