Margot Robbie addresses ‘complicated’ controversy over David Ayer’s Suicide Squad cut

Ayer effectively disowned his 2016 film in a passionate Twitter statement last week

Margot Robbie has addressed the “complicated” controversy over David Ayer’s original cut of 2016’s Suicide Squad.

The Harley Quinn actor is one of a handful of cast members from the original film to reprise their role in James Gunn’s soft reboot of the property. While Gunn’s The Suicide Squad has drawn positive reviews since its release last week, it has been overshadowed by Ayer’s comments about his original cut of the first film.

In a post shared to Twitter, the filmmaker implied that interference by Warner Bros had resulted in a finished film that was not to his liking.

“I put my life into Suicide Squad,” he wrote, as part of the lengthy statement. “I made something amazing. My cut is an intricate and emotional journey with some bad people who are s*** on and discarded (a theme that resonates in my soul). The studio cut is not my movie.”

The post has led to a Twitter movement among fans dubbed “#ReleaseTheAyerCut”, in the tradition of the “#ReleaseTheSnyderCut” campaign. The latter, which revolved around demand for Warner Bros to release director Zack Snyder’s original vision for his 2017 movie Justice League proved successful last year. The original release had been re-shaped and ultimately completed for theatrical release by director Joss Whedon.

Asked about the controversy by Variety, and whether Warner Bros should release Ayer’s cut of the film, Robbie said: “I think that’s all a very complicated situation that I am probably not responsible [for].”

As to whether she’d like to see the cut, Robbie was enthusiastic.

“I would want to see the cut of every movie that I’ve been a part of that I’ve never seen,” she said. “The funny thing is, as an actor and not when you’re a producer, sometimes I don’t see it until half the country has seen it. Sometimes I see it after millions of people have seen it. You don’t get to see the different iterations along the way, unless you’re a producer.”

As a result, Robbie said, she did not see the original Suicide Squad until it was released in 2016.

The Suicide Squad, which also stars Idris Elba, Viola Davis and John Cena, has drawn strong reviews, but has encountered controversy over its UK certificate. Some viewers have suggested that it has too much violence for a 15-certificate, leading the British Board of Film Classification to address the upset.

Find our review of The Suicide Squad here.