James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad is filled with iconic characters from DC Comics ranging from Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) to Bloodsport (Idris Elba) with many more in-between. Gunn even created two new members of Task Force X, T.D.K AKA The Detachable Kid (Nathan Fillion) and Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), the daughter of the already-existing Ratcatcher (Taika Waititi). One comics character who has become a fan-favorite of the film is Polka-Dot Man, played by David Dastmalchian. Gunn previously said of the character, “I went and looked online, ‘Who’s the dumbest DC character of all time?’ and it was Polka-Dot Man. We’ve turned that character who’s a sad, pathetic character into a character who’s depressed because people think he’s stupid. He has a very tragic story that you learn about throughout the film – to be able to add depth to characters who are thought of as the silliest is a fun thing for me to do.” Gunn ended up writing the part specifically for Dastmalchian, a fact the actor talked about in a recent interview with Vulture.
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“The last four years, it’s become much more of a thing,” Dastmalchian said of getting characters written for him. “I don’t know if that’s because I’m such a specific type of individual. Although I like to think that I can disappear into any character, my face is a very specific look. My voice is particular. It’s such a miracle that people in the last several years have begun to think of me for something. I did a series a few years ago called Reprisal and the showrunner Josh Corbin, when he met me, was immediately like, ‘I had you in my book when I was developing this show.’ And Denis, when he was sculpting his vision of Piter, I don’t know if he necessarily envisioned me for it, but when he called me to tell me he wanted me to be in the film, he seemed to think I was the right person. It’s weird. I used to hear about actors who got these offers out of the blue and I thought, Oh man, that must be nice. And I’m getting to experience that. It’s like winning the lottery as an actor.”
During the chat, Dastmalchian also talked about his history with comic book movies and shared the story of Bubblegum, the cat he adopted while filming the movie in Panama.
The Suicide Squad is now playing in theatres and is available to watch on HBO Max.
