South African rap group Die Antwoord — who recently reminded people they existed as stars of the critically skewered Chappie — have come out and claimed that a new cinematic mess about carnivalesque antiheroes has ripped them off. Yolandi Visser posted an angry message on her Instagram today claiming Suicide Squad director David Ayer used their aesthetic without permission. The post (which also includes a video slideshow) references a phone call the director made to Visser’s husband/Die Antwoord collaborator, Ninja (Watkin Tudor Jones) before the movie came out, but Visser says that talk never granted an accord for copying.
Of “da lil tiny details [she claims Ayer] nibbeld dat other people wont see but [they] notice,” she particularly noted similarities between her styling and that of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, as well as bandmate Ninja’s styling and that of Jared Leto’s the Joker. She alleges that she’d been told by both Leto and Cara Delevigne how much Ayer would talk about the band onset. Visser emphasizes similarities with Die Antwoord graffiti and that seen in Suicide Squad, Leto’s nude emaciated tattooed torso beneath a trench coat and a similar Ninja style, and Quinn’s and Visser’s triple-watch-wearing look. She also takes issue with Ninja having had to sit through the whole “bullshit” movie, after Ayer supposedly invited them to the premiere.
Though for some, these seeming references could be flattering, to Visser it’s a barefaced case of “jockin’ [their] style.” Here’s her Instagram post: