Warner Bros. PicturesThere is very little Will Smith hasn’t done.
He’s a major movie star, a two-time Oscar nominee, a Grammy-winning recording artist, and an accomplished music and film producer. But he’s never played a bad guy – until now.
As Will Smith points out Entertainment Weekly, he’s never had to play the role of a through-and-through villain, and Deadshot, a professional assassin, fits the bill pretty perfectly. And that’s the reason he took the role – simply, to finally play a bad guy.
Warner Bros. PicturesHe told Entertainment Weekly:
I had never played a character that legitimately didn’t give a fuck.
It’s very freeing not having to carry the moral spine of the movie.
So with the help of director David Ayer, Smith went deep inside the mind of an assassin. But as you can expect, it wasn’t easy.
Warner Bros. PicturesHe said:
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.
But there’s more to Smith’s character than his sociopathic tendencies. He’s also a devoted father trying to do right by his daughter.
Warner Bros. PicturesAnd it’s shaping up to be a good watch – Ayer said he believes Smith has found something in this film that he hasn’t shown on camera before.
He said: “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.”
We don’t have long to wait – the film’s UK release is set for August 5th.
