10 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn't Know About The DCEU

4. The Production Of Suicide Squad Had An On-Set Therapist For The Actors

Suicide Squad
DC

While making Suicide Squad, director David Ayer aimed for grittiness and realism. He wanted his actors to lose themselves in their roles, so even if they were playing an unhinged killer, he wanted them to become that as much as possible.

As a result, there was quite a dark atmosphere hovering over the set, but because Ayer didn't want his cast to carry that baggage home with them, he brought in someone to help out any of his stars who may have been struggling with the weight of their roles.

In an interview with E! News, Adam Beach (who played Slipknot) spoke about his on-set experience, mentioning that this therapist was there to make sure the actors didn't "fall off the wagon":

"David Ayer is about realism. So if your character is tormented, he wants you to torment yourself. He wants the real thing. We kind of have like a therapist on board if you fall off the wagon and really are villainous. There's a friend of [Ayer's] that's very unique in making sure we have our ground."

While there were no truly disturbing reports to emerge from the set of Suicide Squad, Jared Leto did reportedly send a live rat to Margot Robbie, so perhaps he benefited from a little extra help more than most.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!