Will Smith Reveals Why He Took The Deadshot Role In Suicide Squad

When it was announced that Will Smith (Men in Black) had joined the cast of Suicide Squad, playing Deadshot (a.k.a. Floyd Lawton), it caught many by surprise, as Smith has made a career of playing the heroic lead roles in most of his films.

The 47-year-old says he was attracted to the role because he wanted to work with director David Ayer and, more importantly, wanted to play against type. "I had never played a character that legitimately didn't give a f—," Smith told Entertainment Weekly. "It's very freeing not having to carry the moral spine of the movie."

Smith initially had a hard time wrapping his brain around the mind of a deadly-accurate hitman, but Ayer was able to help Smith to better understand the character's motivation. "I couldn't find a model to understand what would make someone comfortable killing another person for money," said Smith. "David walked me through that. He found a book for me (The Anatomy of Motive by John Douglas), and I worked through getting into the mind of serial killers. Once I accepted the [notion the author puts forth] that it feels good, that really exploded the idea in my mind of Deadshot."

And what's Deadshot's Achilles' heel? "He loves this little girl and that creates this bizarre conflicting mindset where he enjoys killing people but that's something this little girl doesn't want from him," he shared. "She wants a daddy."

It feels good to be bad… Assemble a team of the world's most dangerous, incarcerated Super Villains, provide them with the most powerful arsenal at the government's disposal, and send them off on a mission to defeat an enigmatic, insuperable entity. U.S. intelligence officer Amanda Waller has determined only a secretly convened group of disparate, despicable individuals with next to nothing to lose will do. However, once they realize they weren't picked to succeed but chosen for their patent culpability when they inevitably fail, will the Suicide Squad resolve to die trying, or decide it's every man for himself?

Written and directed by David Ayer based on the characters from DC Comics, the film stars Will Smith ("Ali"), Jared Leto ("Dallas Buyers Club"), Margot Robbie ("The Wolf of Wall Street"), Joel Kinnaman ("RoboCop") and Viola Davis ("The Help"). The cast also includes Jai Courtney ("Insurgent"), Jay Hernandez ("Takers"), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje ("Thor: The Dark World"), Ike Barinholtz ("Neighbors"), Scott Eastwood ("Fury"), Cara Delevingne ("Paper Towns"), Adam Beach ("Cowboys & Aliens"), and Karen Fukuhara in her feature film debut. It is produced by Charles Roven and Richard Suckle, with Zack Snyder, Deborah Snyder, Colin Wilson and Geoff Johns serving as executive producers.

Suicide Squad opens worldwide in 3D, and in 2D, and in select IMAX 3D theaters beginning August 5, 2016.