Since “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” was lambasted for its gloomy and melancholy tone, Warner Bros. went into reshoots in an effort to bring humour and levity to the script. Much has already been said about these alterations. Since Ayer has been extremely open about his dissatisfaction with the editing, the audience will never fully know the full amount of the modifications that were done because Warner Bros. has not (and should not) #ReleaseTheAyerCut. The extent of the changes have been hotly contested by fans for a while, but none has received as much attention as the length of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn’s hotpants.
Because the studio requested reshoots, fans walked into “Suicide Squad” aware that significant changes had been made. As a result, many of them observed the movie closely. After the website Bleeding Cool presented a side-by-side comparison of Harley Quinn in the trailers compared to the finished product, uproar quickly broke out. Many people think that one of the adjustments Warner Bros. made was to digitally show off more of Robbie’s behind since the hot pants Robbie wore appeared to be a little longer in the trailers than they were in the finished movie.
Did a Major Studio Really Digitally Alter An Actress’ Butt Cleavage?!
People concluded right once that Robbie’s clothing had been digitally changed to be more exposing for the movie, maybe in an effort to titillate the crowd, who was most likely to be male-dominated. During the press tour for the movie, Robbie was frequently questioned about it, and many outraged fans properly labelled it misogynistic. There was just one issue: the shorter versions of the shorts were the original looks, and the only editing done by Warner Bros. was lengthening them for trailer commercials. That much cheek would have been considered “offensive” or at the very least inappropriate for daytime advertisement.
The truth came to light when attendees of the Hall H presentation at San Diego Comic-Con in 2016 were able to recognise that the original little shorts were on exhibit in the sizzle reel that was shown to fans and included the trailer shot of Harley Quinn walking away from the camera. The new facts soon put an end to the issue, which led many people to wonder why the hot pants were so dang short in the first place. Robbie claimed in several interviews that she did not particularly like the original Harley Quinn look since it made her feel self-conscious. Thankfully, the Harley Quinn outfits in “Birds of Prey” and James Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad” were radically different, thus no butt cleavage was required.
