Harley quinn birds of prey overalls11/11/2023 ![]() The blonde bombshell distinction may put an actress on the scene, but it’s an image that lacks the elasticity and curiosity Robbie has demonstrated over the course of her brief career, playing characters as different as the hard-edged, infamous ’90s figure skater Tonya Harding in I, Tonya, the fractured Queen Elizabeth I in Mary Queen of Scots, and the effervescent Sharon Tate in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. When the actress was told by a Vogue writer that it’s nearly impossible to find a story about her without the word “bombshell” in it, she responds, “I hate that word. This is something Robbie herself is clearly aware of. And the kind of lacquered surface required of a bombshell allows a narrow range of onscreen existence. To be a blonde bombshell may earn attention, but beauty so often is a double-edged sword in the industry. ![]() From Peg Entwistle, an actress remembered most profoundly by her death, to Marilyn Monroe’s complicated legacy, to more modern examples like Jennifer Lawrence, the blonde in Hollywood history sheds light on beauty politics, the nature of stardom, and racialized hierarchies. Watching the number, I couldn’t help but think of the continuum of Hollywood blondes on which Robbie exists. And she never gets lost in the sequence’s rapid-fire editing or the hail of bullets that surround her. She disrupts the lacquered surface of the often-parodied musical number with a spiky quality. She jauntily dances with Black Mask, her face shifting from a mocking pout to a face fiery with mischief. In the number, she bites the outstretched hand of one of the suited men around her. Dressed in a magenta jumpsuit, dripping in diamonds, against an achingly pink backdrop, Harley becomes an emblem of blissful chaos. After a brutal slap across the face, her mind wanders to an arch reimagining of the “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” sequence from the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Margot Robbie’s vivacious Harley Quinn is tied up and being threatened by mob boss Roman Sionis, a.k.a. Early in Birds of Prey, there’s a fantastical scene that places its star in a curious lineage.
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