Margot Robbie’s Death-Defying ‘Suicide Squad’ Stunt, What It Says About Story

According to Entertainment Weekly, Margot Robbie recently revealed an absolutely astonishing trick she learned in order to pull off an insane stunt in the soon-to-be-released Suicide Squad. To be more specific, Robbie learned to hold her breath underwater for five minutes.

“It’s all about lowering your metabolic rate… you kinda, like, meditate underwater,” Robbie explained to Jimmy Fallon when she went on his show this weekend.

“It’s what free-divers do, but it’s amazing.”

Robbie told Fallon that the makers of Suicide Squad are not fans of using CGI and camera trickery to fabricate action sequences. When it was time to film a scene in which Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie’s character in Suicide Squad) is submerged underwater for a long period of time, they did not want to go the typical action movie route of “faking” the scene with quick cuts. Instead, they asked Robbie to work on developing the skill so she could hold her breath for real.

Robbie quickly accepted the challenge — as she has said in the past, reports The Inquisitr, Margot is extremely dedicated to the success of this film in particular.

Robbie was so enthused about fulfilling the Suicide Squad producers’ wishes, in fact, that she got into a fearsome competition with her stunt double over who could learn to hold their breath underwater for longer.

“I got to five minutes, and I was like, ‘You know what? This is above and beyond what I thought I’d get to. I’m good with five,'” Robbie explained.

MARGOT ROBBIE LEARNED HOLDING BREATH UNDERWATER FOR 5 MINUTES https://t.co/UYvD4MaFju pic.twitter.com/TtwmFhe3RF

— Viralol (@Viralol_LoL) August 1, 2016

She continued that the stunt double had proceeded to beat Margot’s time with five and a half minutes underwater. At that point, Robbie said, the all-powerful “they” had to step in and intervene for fear someone would get hurt.

“No one needs to drown over this.”

After all, they said, the scene only requires Robbie to be underwater for one full minute, not five.

Robbie stopped when told, but she reflects that she greatly enjoyed the lessons.

“I worked with this amazing free-diver, and he came in and I did four sessions with him,” Robbie told Fallon during the interview.

One might not think that holding your breath for insanely long amounts of time is something that can be taught so quickly, but there are many diving institutes like Freedive UK that give free courses on how to train yourself to hold your breath for a much longer time underwater in just one month. Margot Robbie can undoubtedly afford to train under the best instructors in the world, so she very well may have achieved the feat even faster than that.

Robbie did not say in the interview where the underwater scene takes place. It seems highly likely, speculates Comic Book Movie, that it will be the scene that takes place after The Joker, played by Jared Leto, crashes his car into a river and Batman shows up to help save Robbie’s Harley Quinn.

Robbie did reveal that she has to fight underwater during the scene, though, so does that mean she tries to fight off her rescuer? Or could it be that Margot Robbie’s breathtaking stunt (literally) takes place at another point in the film completely?

Either way, comic book fans and movie-goers alike are tremendously excited for the much-anticipated release of Suicide Squad this Friday, and Margot Robbie, what with the incredible body and charisma she has brought to her character in the trailers, is already a fan favorite.

Robbie isn’t exactly setting any records here — Tom Cruise held his breath underwater for over six minutes in last year’s Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation — but just that she can pull off such an incredible feat shows how dedicated she is to making Suicide Squad one for the record books.

[Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP Images]