Now that Suicide Squad is in theaters, Empire was able to talk to director David Ayer about spoilers. He talked about some alternate cuts of the movie, Batman and the Joker’s relationship, the Joker’s screen time and more.
Check out some highlights from Empire’s chat with Ayer below.
The original script started in Belle Reve
“The very first script started in Belle Reve and told the backstories of everybody in these sort of flashback montages. The original conception is that there would be these memory bursts as they sat in their cells recalling their previous lives and also get the audience up to speed about who they are and how they ended up there. The first impulse was always to do a montage in the first act, but you chase different things.”
There’s no R-rated cut
“You could easily make this R-rated by having two F-bombs or someone smoke a cigarette. But that’s not what I think people mean when they ask for an R-rated version, so it was always meant to be a PG-13. It’s a decision you make before you turn the cameras on.”
The Joker owes his ‘damaged’ tattoo to the Boy Wonder
“This is sort of my personal thing and maybe less about a larger connection. But Joker killed Robin and Batman basically smashes his teeth out and locks him up in Arkham Asylum. It’s in the asylum where Joker would have done the ‘damaged’ tattoo as a message to Batman saying, ‘You’ve damaged me. I was so beautiful before and now you’ve destroyed my face.’ That’s where the grill comes from.”
The version you see in cinemas is the ‘dossier’ version
“There’s a linear version we did where it opens up with June in the cave and tells the story in sequence with the arrests and Batman, and then we go to Belle Reve. Honestly, there may be six or seven different versions of the film. In that version, [test] audiences were left with a lot of questions and a little disoriented as to who to watch and why. So we came up with what we call the ‘dossier’ version which has Amanda presenting the backstories and origins of the various members.”
Don’t call Jared Leto’s performance a cameo
“I think there was an expectation of what the film should have been. People really wanted more Joker and wanted him to be an A-plot component. And it’s funny how the critics call it a cameo but he has some fantastic sequences that are really important for the film. He really influences the journey quite a bit.”
Head on over to Empire to read their full interview with Suicide Squad director David Ayer, where he talks about 12 other interesting topics.
SOURCE: Empire
