Will Smith is probably one of the most accomplished actors to walk the Earth. He’s had a hit TV series, multiple hit albums, been a worldwide movie star for decades, and could spend his entire career pursuing the EGOT if he felt like it. So the idea that he was going to play minor Batman villain Deadshot in an ensemble cast of supervillains for Suicide Squad was something many people dismissed as idle gossip…until it happened. And it turns out Smith took the job for a simple reason: He wanted to play a bad guy for once.
Smith has a brief profile in Entertainment Weekly where he more or less points out he’s played the nice guy his entire career:
“I had never played a character that legitimately didn’t give a f—. It’s very freeing not having to carry the moral spine of the movie.”
As Smith points out, he’s never had to play the role of an out-and-out villain, and Deadshot, a professional assassin who never misses, fits the bill pretty well. And it makes sense. Ever since he was the Fresh Prince, Will Smith’s had to play the hero, so shooting gross alien people in the face was probably a great relief. Or maybe he just saw how much fun his wife was having on Gotham and decided he had to get in on that. Really, can you blame him?
(Via Entertainment Weekly)
