'Suicide Squad' Star Will Smith on Playing Deadshot: 'It Was a Huge Growth Experience for Me'

Here’s how excited Will Smith was to join the DC Universe’s Suicide Squad as resident marksman Deadshot: He signed on to the David Ayer-directed movie without even reading a script. “I met with David, he pitched me Deadshot and gave me all the material. I was like, ‘I’m in!,’” the star told Yahoo recently. “It was a couple months before I actually saw a screenplay.”

Sure, that may seem like an impulse decision, but Smith makes it clear that saying “Yes” to donning Deadshot’s trademark helmet is all part of his current approach to picking roles. “At this point in my career, I’m choosing movies for growth and character exploration…. I had never played many bad guy characters, because it was hard for me to comprehend the mentality, so it was a huge growth experience for me.”

Related: Read our complete ‘Suicide Squad’ coverage

Not that the former Fresh Prince hasn’t had his brushes with villainy in the past; for his first major film role, he starred in the 1993 movie version of Six Degrees of Separation as a youthful con artist. He later returned to the confidence game in the 2015 hit, Focus, which paired him with fellow Suicide Squad member, Margot Robbie. And then there’s Hancock, the 2008 blockbuster in which Smith portrayed a superhero gone to seed.

Even with that history of exploring his darker side, Smith says that playing Deadshot represented a special challenge, one that made him eager to sign on. “David said, ‘This is not a movie of good vs. evil — it’s a movie of bad vs. evil,’” said Smith. “These are obviously bad guys that have done a whole lot of dirt, and the question is can they be pulled back to their humanity?”

Watch Margot Robbie talk about Harley Quinn’s costume: