STACK #205 Nov 2021

FILM FEATURE

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MAGNIFICENT SEVENTEEN Seventeen supervillains brought together for a mission they can't refuse: The Suicide Squad is every bit as fun as it sounds. And so is hanging out on set with a star- studded cast, trading gossip. Read on! Words Gill Pringle

every day, going, ‘Hey Idris, what’s up? How are you doing?’” she recalls. Mortified by his lead actress’s discomfort, Gunn explains: “We wanted to make sure that you were really, really, white throughout the whole movie – which is what Harley is. And so that was a great idea when we were doing it, and then in the movie itself, it turned out to be a big hinderance, especially when white is all over Juan Diego Botto’s face,” he says of Harley Quinn’s new paramour. “I certainly wasn’t complaining,” laughs Botto. “My character is the new ruler of this Corto Maltese, and he’s obsessed with two things: his collection of lorikeets, and Harley Quinn. And those two obsessions determine his fate, eventually.” But still, the cast can’t escape the dominant theme of Cena’s Peacemaker package. They argue over what he might have used to stuff his undies, concluding it to be a gourd and two summer squash. Indeed, Peacemaker was such a hit, Cena was immediately awarded his own spin-off TV series, set to debut on HBO Max in January 2022. Ask the cast which one among them has the lamest powers, and Davidson immediately shoots up his hand. ”Me! Blackguard doesn’t have any powers at all," he says. "I just have guns strapped to my chest. But I had a great time, and the people on set were very kind because usually when I’m on sets, they take away the fun toys because I play around with them. But they were very nice and let me hold them,” he grins. “We’d been warned about Pete, so we just needed to make sure they weren’t loaded so he wasn’t shooting anyone,” concludes Gunn. PEACEMAKER SPINS OFF If you want more of the inspired mayhem of The Suicide Squad , then the HBO spin-off Peacemaker will be right up your alley. John Cena reprises his role as the man of action in need of supervision, with director James Gunn back at the helm. The trailer for this eight-episode origin story is already out, and we catch Peacemaker trying to reconcile with his dad played by Robert Patrick, the veteran actor best known as T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Peacemaker is slated for January 2022 on HBO .

• The Suicide Squad (2021) is out Nov 3

W hen STACK catches up with the A-list cast of James Gunn’s R-rated The Suicide Squad , it's akin to hanging out in a high school boys’ locker room. Much of our chat is taken up discussing cast outings to Atlanta strip clubs, and what John Cena’s Peacemaker might have used to stuff his undies, while Margot Robbie cracks up as any seemingly innocent topic reverts back to Cena’s tighty- whities. It’s no surprise that Pete Davidson (Blackguard) is the main ringleader in this debate, accusing his co-star of stuffing his package and using a “d-ck filter”. “Yo, bro! You have a huge piece there, dude!” teases Davidson. Our interview began in typical press day fashion, with director-writer Gunn ( Guardians of the Galaxy ) waxing on about his original pitch to Warner Bros and how honoured he was to be “entrusted with this enormous amount of freedom on such a big budget movie”. If some audiences felt disappointed by David Ayer’s 2016 Suicide Squad – featuring Jared Leto as The Joker – then Gunn’s mission was to re-energise an appetite for this misfit band of incarcerated super-villains in order to coax audiences back into the cinema, a job he more or less achieved as the film broke even on its costs versus box office. “I wanted to populate the film with forgotten DC characters from John Ostrander’s original Suicide Squad comic books; characters we don’t usually see on screen," says Gunn, who made good on his promise with Sly Stallone’s King Shark, Idris Elba’s Bloodsport/Robert DuBois, Daniela Melchior’s Ratcatcher 2, David Dastmalchian’s Polka-Dot Man, Nathan Fillion’s T.D.K., Flula Borg’s Javelin, and Mayling Ng’s Mongal. Robbie’s Harley Quinn, Jai Courtney’s Boomerang, Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller and Joel Kinnaman’s Rick Flag serve among the few hold-

overs from the original film, while former Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi portrays evil mastermind, The Thinker.

This time round, the Suicide Squad are sent to the island nation of Corto Maltese to destroy evidence of a giant alien starfish known as Starro the Conqueror. Bright pink and standing at 200 feet tall, he surely gives SpongeBob’s Patrick a run for his money. Robbie was delighted with her new castmates. “When I first read the script – when no one else was announced in the cast – I read Polka-Dot Man with David in my head," she says. "And I’d never met David Dastmalchian before this movie, either! I spoke to James and asked if anyone else was on board yet, and he said David Dastmalchian was going to be Polka-Dot Man. And I said, ‘That is exactly who I pictured!’ I don’t know what it says about Dave, but I’m so happy he’s in it. It was meant to be,” she says. Robbie was less thrilled, however, with her rigorous new make-up routine. ”One of the hardest things we do in this film is not the giant set pieces, and the explosions, and all the stunts. It was re-setting make-up between our characters. When Harley kisses someone, it’s a mess afterwards. Harley just wants to make sure it’s not just a little lipstick on the collar, it's like everyone knows that Harley’s been there. She leaves a mark!” she smiles. “Can I just share a little tidbit that no one would know apart from Margot and I? “ asks Elba.

“Margot and I shared a make- up cabin, and every morning she’d be freezing, being sprayed down. Oh man, I felt for her.” “It was our morning routine.," Robbie agrees. "There’d be a little divider, and I’d be naked on one side getting spray painted

FURTHER VIEWING

NOVEMBER 2021

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