The Dark Knight: Actor David Dastmalchian Reflects on His Feature Film Debut

These days, David Dastmalchian is known for playing Ant-Man/Scott Lang’s pal Kurt in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Polka-Dot Man in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, but those weren’t his first appearances in a comic book movie. In 2008, Dastmalchian appeared in The Dark Knight as one of Joker’s thugs, Thomas Schiff. Recently, the actor spoke with /Film about his new film The Last Voyage of the Demeter, and his DC history came up. During the chat, Dastmalchian spoke about working with director Christopher Nolan and filming in Chicago. 

“For me, the thing that stood out was getting the opportunity to observe one of the great masters of cinema, Christopher Nolan, be able to orchestrate a set with thousands of performers and hundreds if not thousands of crew members and extensive equipment setups under the incredible pressure of having to shoot in a downtown, thriving, operating metropolis like Chicago and make that Gotham City,” Dastmalchian shared.

“Seeing him do so with nothing but confidence and clarity and the skill of a great leader and communicator,” he continued. “That just affected me in this deep way, seeing an artist at that level operate in such a manner, and since then, has been the bellwether representation of the captains that I love to embark on journeys with, the people who I will follow into the craziest waters, the most unknown places, the most dark chasms to jump with leaps of faith because somebody just has that kind of discipline and heart for cinema. And I saw it again. I got to see it on the set of his newest film. I can’t wait for people to see.”

David Dastmalchian On Playing Multiple DC Roles:

Earlier this year, Dastmalchian had a chat with ComicBook.com‘s Chris Killian in honor of his film, Boston Strangler, and talked about the multiverse theory that comes with playing multiple DC characters. 

“There’s a theory right there. There’s a whole multiverse. I mean, maybe I’ll just have to make that movie myself … It’ll be like my own, I’ll shoot it on my iPhone,” Dastmalchian shared with a laugh. “I don’t care if anybody watches. Yeah, my kid, my kids love that. But yeah, as you’ve acknowledged, I mean, Tommy Schiff, the first time I was ever in a film getting to be in legion with the Joker and be a part of a film, you know, that changed the way we think about cinema and comic book movies all the way through all of the Ant-Man films. Getting to be a part of James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, the different television, you know, comic book iterations I’ve gotten to bring to life, and it’s a gift.”

Dastmalchian continued, “I don’t take lightly for a second how lucky I am, my battles with mental illness and the struggles that I have faced as an individual who is both an addict and someone who has struggled intensely with depression, anxiety. I just, I want any of your readers to know out there who feel alone, who are struggling right now, that there is always help. It’s always one phone call, one click away. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. That is the scariest and hardest thing there is to do. And if I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t be sitting here today getting to take on these challenges and talk to you about, you know, this incredible work.” 

The Last Voyage of the Demeter is now playing in theaters.