Watch the Highlights From the ‘Suicide Squad’ Twitter Q&A
Yesterday, the cast and director of Suicide Squad took to Twitter to answer fans’ questions about the upcoming movie. And while many of the questions were geared towards the experience of being in a superhero movie — their favorite characters, superpowers, or questions as to who would win in a fight between the various heroes and villains of the DC universe — there were a few questions that offered the cast and a crew a chance to either dive deep into the filmmaking experience or just have some fun with the answer. I’ve listed a few of my favorites below, but you can view the full Q&A at the official Suicide Squad Twitter page.
In perhaps my favorite answer, a fan asked Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje a question about how he kept preoccupied during hours of makeup. According to the actor, each day of work would require between three and five hours of makeup, which Akinnuoye-Agbaje passed with the normal assortment of naps and music. One surprising insight? Akinnuoye-Agbaje also listened to a series of interviews with Issei Sagawa, a Japanese man who murdered and ate a stranger in 1981 and managed to avoid a prison sentence. Heavy stuff.
Another highlight was when a fan asked Will Smith and Margot Robbie why there was no musical tie-in from Smith for Suicide Squad (this is a question I’ve had on my mind since ScreenCrush published a list of the 20 best hip-hop movie theme songs earlier this week). And while Robbie does try and goad Smith into giving a straight answer, the response is more than a little cagey. “I was at the thing, and I recorded it at the thing, but then whatchya-call-it didn’t let me do it.” There you have it, hip-hop fans. You can blame whatchya-call-it for not letting us hear the Will Smith thing.
Finally, director David Ayer answered a question about characters who did not find their way into the final script. According to Ayer, he had originally hoped to use King Shark, another animal-human cannibal and member of the Suicide Squad in the comic books, instead of Killer Croc. This character was shelved when Ayer realized the amount of CGI that would be required to make him work, leading to Croc’s inclusion as Suicide Squad’s resident monster. This hints at an emphasis on practical effects with Killer Croc, too, a welcome addition to any character design.
Here is the full synopsis for Suicide Squad:
It feels good to be bad… Assemble a team of the world’s most dangerous, incarcerated Super Villains, provide them with the most powerful arsenal at the government’s disposal, and send them off on a mission to defeat an enigmatic, insuperable entity. U.S. intelligence officer Amanda Waller has determined only a secretly convened group of disparate, despicable individuals with next to nothing to lose will do. However, once they realize they weren’t picked to succeed but chosen for their patent culpability when they inevitably fail, will the Suicide Squad resolve to die trying, or decide it’s every man for himself?
Suicide Squad opens on August 5, 2016.