10 Risky Film Moments Directors Thought They'd Lose You

Superhero movies go through a far more extensive editorial process than most films, given their generally higher budgets and the studio's desire to therefore make them appealing to all four quadrants of the market.

Despite its permissive R rating, Birds of Prey saw director Cathy Han battling Warner Bros. to keep the film's most controversial and discomforting scene, one which Han herself admitted was "risky."

The scene in question involved Roman Sionis aka Black Mask (Ewan McGregor) flying into a rage at his club and taking it out on a laughing woman, Erika (Bojana Novakovic), by forcing her to dance on top of a table, before making her friend rip her dress off at knifepoint. Han said:

“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 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."

While on one hand you can appreciate the studio's consternation about including a scene of obvious sexual violence in a $100 million blockbuster, it also felt entirely justified contextually given that the film is wholly concerned with toxic masculinity and feminism.

Plus, McGregor's so damn chilling in the scene that it would've been a crime to leave it on the cutting room floor.

Sadly Birds of Prey ended up tanking at the box office, though its disappointing commercial performance can be assigned to numerous other factors before even considering the impact of this single scene.