Aka: Floyd Lawton
Played by: Will Smith
Speciality: Marksmanship
Suicide Squad marks the second movie to imbue Will Smith with superpowers. Though while Hancock gave him flight, super-strength and eternal youth, this time he’s just a really, really damn good shot.
“On Bad Boys I trained in Miami with special-ops guys,” Smith says, “but this is a whole other level. It took 20 minutes to get all the equipment on, and the wrist-Glocks were kinda like a bra strap — it took a while to master. But the psychological component was much more difficult. I had to learn to get comfortable with the idea of killing a stranger.”
Deadshot may be a hitman, but he’s a hitman to root for. “As the movie opens, he has a really big career score,” Smith says. “He’s looking to turn over a new leaf with his daughter after the hit, but it goes wrong. It goes terribly, terribly wrong. And it lands him in Belle Reve for life.” Instead of retirement, he finds himself stuck with Earth’s most gnarly ne’er-do- wells. “Harley is the biggest troublemaker, but Deadshot’s actually eyeballing her a little bit. There’s a pretty ragged romantic triangle there.”
His first big ensemble piece since Independence Day, Smith describes the cast as having “magical chemistry”. He even wielded an ink-gun to tattoo “SKWAD” onto Joel Kinnaman’s arm at the wrap party. “Will has many, many talents, [but] tattooing is not one of them,” commented Kinnaman below his Instagram pic. “It was like watching a drunk baby fly a helicopter.”
Smith howls with laughter at the memory. Though he admits he found it difficult keeping up with some of his co-stars. “Listen, I think I’m in my twenties, but on Suicide Squad it got really clear that I’m not. Like, nobody went to sleep. Ever. I was like, ‘Guys, please, somebody take a nap!’”
Origins: Floyd Lawton had a reputation as the world’s greatest marksman and worked as a hired assassin. Thanks to an overpowering death wish, he was willing to kill anyone for the right price, but on the flipside was committed to protecting his estranged ex-wife and daughter. He pre-dates the squad’s birth as he was originally created by Bob Kane, David Vern Reed and Lew Sayre Schwartz in 1950 as a prime villain for Batman. He’s known for his trademark eyepiece and mask, which Smith also sports in the film.
Read our exhaustive Suicide Squad guide here.