Birds of Prey Director Reveals the One Risky Scene She Had to Fight For

Birds of Prey was the first R-Rated movie from the DCEU and it showed, not because it had nudity and gore but because it was a fairly adult story that couldn't be told in the realm of PG-13 land. There were a number of disturbing scenes in the movie, like Victor Zsasz cutting off a person's face. However, the one scene that might have disturbed people the most was when Ewan McGregor's Black Mask forced a woman to dance and strip because she laughed loudly.

It's a deeply disturbing scene and one that left a lot of people uneasy but director Cathy Yan felt that it was important to keep. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Yan said this scene was the turning point for Black Canary, who had been on the fence about Black Mask until now. This was disturbing in a good way and made you feel better when Black Mask ended up exploding in the end.

"I'll be honest: We had to fight to keep that scene because it was uncomfortable. It was risky, and we had to fight to keep it at all. There are cuts in 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."

We can safely say that it worked, showing that the movie definitely needed an R-Rating so that everyone could see just how bad this section of Gotham is. It really is a shame that this movie didn't reach Deadpool numbers but we can always hope that fan reception leads to a Birds of Prey 2.

Birds of Prey is now available on digital stores.

Read: Birds of Prey Director Speaks Out on the Film's 'Disappointing' Box Office Numbers