Well, we think of Harley as an optimist and someone who considers themselves a lover of life. (Except when she murders people.) I think that’s also baked into the original Harley as well, so, sure! They’d have their ups and downs but ultimately they’d get along. Harley war also sounds like a really good DTV
8 Likes
What was the first instance that made you think, “Hey, we’d better make this TV-MA!” ?
2 Likes
Will this show follow the darker side of Harley, or is it going to be more like a mixture and how did you balance the 2 if so?
Ps thank you for this show, am a huge harley fan!
What specific sources did you look at for inspiration for these iconic characters like harley and ivy?
1 Like
You’re correct that we initially turned to Jimmy and Amanda’s run for inspiration. Ultimately, we tried to capture the same irreverent tone that they brought to the table. But at the end of the day, we wanted this show to examine Harley’s criminal roots, so any of the anti-hero version we see residing in Coney Island stays in the Rebirth run. For now! Also BTAS was a huge inspiration for the earlier episodes of this show (particualry the pilot)
14 Likes
Will this show teach me how to swear?
6 Likes
That just made me a lil bit giddy lol
3 Likes
Will there be a ton of Easter eggs within the show like references to the batman animated show from the early 90s, the batman video games, and references to the dceu cinematic universe version of harley?
1 Like
Well, we knew we needed someone who could hit all the levels of Harley. She’s got to be energetic, but also insane, but also terrifying, but also incredibly likeable. That’s pretty difficult to pull off. And when we were discussing with the studio, they asked us what we thought of Kaley. We were fans, so we sat down with her, and when we started talking about the character with her she just got it one hundred percent. She understood what makes Harley, Harley. And the other thing about Kaley is that she’s an incredibly skilled, technical comic actress. She knows where all the turns can be in a line, and how to reach every level. It’s insanely tough to do that, and that’s probably why she’s been a professional actress since she was like four or something nuts like that.
15 Likes
So what about the Brooklyn accent? Why decide not to use it?
1 Like
Do you think that the expansion of Harley’s Quinns role is because the is a demand for a credible female antihero?
2 Likes
Hey Sarabeth! (Go pointers!). Both Patrick and I are huge BTAS fans. I think we both watched pretty religiously, and the original Harley from BTAS popped the moment you saw her. It was just a fun take on a character and specifically one that felt different, even to BTAS, which was so much different than everything else out there at the time.
13 Likes
Were you fans of the character before working on the show?
1 Like
For sure. How about Catwoman first off. Because CW doesn’t give a f*** about anything. If they say the opposite of love is apathy, then you have two great opposites with Harley and Selina. #2 I would say Kite Man, because Harley is someone who has historically been a person who takes in “stray animals.” Kite Man, being a bit of a whipping boy in the DCU qualifies as that, in my book. HE also makes an appearance (several) in the show. And what complicates things for him and Harley is that he has romantic designs on Ivy. (!!!) It’s something we haven’t seen in the comics, but we love it and it made it into the show. #3 Darkseid. I love the idea of Harley, this street level villain whose domain is Gotham City being face to face with an evil god who’s just into the anti-life equation. Maybe Big D makes an appearance in the show as it progresses too. They can’t really relate to each other at all… or can they? These semi-cryptic answers brought to you by Harley Quinn. Coming to DC Universe 11/29/2019.
17 Likes
So what we loved so much about Kaley was her approach to the character. She came to us and she said she understood what had been done in the past, she understood what Margot had done, and she wanted to bring something different. She didn’t want it to just sound like she was doing a Tara Strong impression, or a Margot impression, or a Sorkin impression. And we got that because we also wanted to make sure people knew our show was a very different version of Harley than had been seen before. So we all kind of decided that as long as it felt like the character, we could play with it.
15 Likes
Was there anything you guys wanted to put in the show but simply couldnt? Maybe it didnt fit into the plot or just didnt really work?
3 Likes
I think Kaley is great.
4 Likes
We looked at MTM as a touchstone for Harley because we loved her optimism as a character, and always thought it was an easy, efficient comparison to make when pitching the show. It also always got a laugh to think of Mary as a killer, which is how we defined Harley in a thumbnail sketch. I would say Ivy is only her Rhoda, in that we would love for Ivy to also have a successful spinoff. If there were a historic TV character that compares easily to Ivy, it’s probably Daria. Also, Justin and my influences heavily skew toward live action broadcast ensemble comedies (what we grew up on), so looking at this show as a workplace ensemble comedy was natural for us. Bonus answer: Clayface is kind of like Ted Baxter from Mary Tyler Moore.
8 Likes
Damn. That’s a question, my friend. THAT IS A QUESTION. Hmmm. Well, I think we definitely took a little bit from a lot of different places, while also trying to create something that felt specific to just our show. I think for us, we knew we wanted to explore her identity, and specifically through her POV. Who does she think SHE is and what does SHE want, independent of anyone else. And when we started to answer that, it was kind of like we were a boat on Harley Island and we pushed out to Sea. All those other versions of Harley we could see, but we were slowly and methodically moving towards our own version.
10 Likes