Can you believe Birds of Prey director Cathy Yan had to fight to keep this once scene in?

Birds of Prey is a weird movie. I remember the first indication we had of its goofiness was in an interview with star and producer Margot Robbie when she basically chuckled as she said it wasn’t a serious movie. And she was totally right. From its unreliable narrator to its off-the-wall action and its non-stop jokes, it probably takes the cake as the oddest DC movie to date. But that’s not to say it’s completely devoid of serious scenes.

Birds of Prey does its best to do two things — make you love Harley and make you terrified of Black Mask (aka Roman Sionis). Personally, I think they do a great job of both. And they do a surprisingly good job of making Black Mask entertaining as hell all while making him unlikable and scary. Of course, you have the scene where his homeboy Victor Zsasz skins the face of a little girl, but there’s another scene that really drives it home.

The scene in question is one where Black Mask forces a woman to dance on a table in her underwear after he thinks she laughs at him. The scene is an oddly serious one and is surprisingly hard to watch. In an interview with director Cathy Yan, THR asks if that one required debate to keep in.

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“I’ll be honest: We had to fight to keep that scene because it was uncomfortable,” Yan admitted to the outlet. “It was risky, and we had to fight to keep it at all. There are cuts of the movie without it. I think it’s a huge turning point for Roman; it’s a huge turning point for Canary, and the way that we shot it was hopefully not about the sexual violence upon the woman. It was more about Roman, what he’s capable of and Canary seeing him for who he really is for the first time. Now, she can fully cut herself off from him, and I thought it was a really important scene. So, we fought for it.”

The scene is definitely a turning point for Canary and allows her to commit to her moves against Roman. I also think it’s a turning point for the viewers. Yes, we’ve seen him order an entire family get their faces peeled off, but he’s been largely entertaining to watch. But with this scene, any sympathy I could have had for him quickly went out the window.

When you have a movie where you’re rooting for an anti-hero, it’s probably a good thing you have the audience rooting for them and not the villain. 

What did you think of that scene in the film? Are you surprised Cathy Yan had to fight to keep it in? Let us know your thoughts down below!

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SOURCE: THR