Suicide Squad has had its fair share of unconventional circumstances during the production of the film. From the cast getting matching tattoos to Jared Leto's unsettling method performance, there's certainly a uniqueness to the making of the next installment in the DCEU. In a new interview with Yahoo, director David Ayer has discussed another peculiar tactic he used during rehearsals; apparently he got his cast to fight each other as a bonding exercise. “The rehearsal was very intense. It wasn’t a normal rehearsal, we’d talk about their lives, their history, and really got them to open up as people to each other. I also had them fight. I had them fight each other. You learn a lot about who a person really is when you punch them in the face. It gets rid of a lot of the actor stuff.”
To be clear, these were not fight scenes, but general rehearsals. Joel Kinnaman, who plays Rick Flag, said “We were all in one room, rehearsing the script, improvising, and that puts everybody in an insecure and vulnerable position.” Ayer also asked some deliberately tough questions to his talent, making them answer uncomfortable questions in front of their castmates, such as what their greatest fears are, the meanest things they’ve done, and when they were the most embarrassed. Ayer says that this allowed his cast to “know each other for real” before working on the film, which seems to have paid off, as the actors have all spoken about their tight bond both on and off the set.
Margot Robbie, who plays Harley Quinn, also spoke briefly on working with Jared Leto, whose method performance was something she had never experienced before. “It’s really interesting. Sometimes it can be awkward, sometimes it can be terrifying, most of the time it’s just funny. I’m trying not to laugh, because he says such hilarious things. Jared’s really funny, and terrifying, and just nuts. Absolutely nuts. It’s really interesting to work with someone so method, because I haven’t worked with someone doing that before.”
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