Will Smith On Why He Signed On For ‘Suicide Squad’

Over the course of his career, Will Smith has turned down roles in films such as Django Unchained and The Matrix, so when we learned that he would be playing Deadshot in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, a blockbuster with so many characters, many fans were surprised to say the least. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, the actor revealed why he decided to sign on for the project and how Ayer helped him get into character:

“I had never played a character that legitimately didn’t give a f—. It’s very freeing not having to carry the moral spine of the movie. I couldn’t find a model to understand what would make someone comfortable killing another person for money, David walked me through that. He found a book for me (The Anatomy of Motive by John Douglas), and I worked through getting into the mind of serial killers. Once I accepted the [notion the author puts forth] that it feels good, that really exploded the idea in my mind of Deadshot.”

Deadshot may be a ruthless killer, but he does have one major weakness — his daughter, Zoe Lawton, who we’ll see in a flashback sequence in the movie:

“His Achilles heel is his daughter. He loves this little girl and that creates this bizarre conflicting mindset where he enjoys killing people but that’s something this little girl doesn’t want from him. She wants a daddy.”

The actor also offered praise for director David Ayer. The two will actually reunite later this year for a project titled Bright, which was written by Max Landis:

“I’m so proud of what he did in this. I think that’s going to be one of the surprises [of the movie.] It feels like he found something new. He found a different gear in this. He’s one of the best actor’s directors I’ve ever worked with.”

Starring Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Karen Fukuhara, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Ike Barinholtz, Scott Eastwood and Cara Delevingne, Suicide Squad hits theaters on August 5, 2016.

Source: Entertainment Weekly

Michael Bezanidis

Michael Bezanidis

Michael is the Managing Editor of Heroic Hollywood. When he's not playing video games, he's usually writing about film and television.