As part of Entertainment Weekly's coverage of WB's third DCEU film, Suicide Squad, Will Smith discusses why he signed up to play Deadshot. At 47, Smith has already played a superhero (Hancock), so it wasn't to scratch that itch (yes, I know Deadshot isn't really a hero). The Grammy Award winning, Oscar-nominated Philly actor stated, "I had never played a character that legitimately didn’t give a f*&k. It’s very freeing not having to carry the moral spine of the movie."
However, Smith admitted that he had to turn to director David Ayer for help on developing his approach to playing the character. "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."
Head over to EW to read more of Nicole Sperling's interview with Smith, including how Deadshot's daughter factors into the film.