Bad Boys
Jai Courtney and Jay Hernandez had a blast playing supervillains saving the world in DC Comics movie Suicide Squad
The two men sitting in front of a group of international journalists at New York City's Moynihan Station to promote their latest movie Suicide Squad could not be more different.
One is extremely laid-back, with his sentences punctuated by F-bombs galore; the other is prim and proper, speaking to us rather cautiously.
Maybe it is because Jai Courtney is an action flick go-to guy, while Jay Hernandez is still new to the genre.
As different as they are, the pair are chummy and down-to-earth.
Courtney claims Hernandez "is more of a bad-ass than me in real life," to which the latter laughs heartily.
"Girls always like the bad guys, right," countered Hernandez, 34.
Both men play exactly that in Suicide Squad, which revolves around DC Comics villains such as Deadshot (Will Smith), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) and Enchantress (Cara Delevingne) - banding together to help save the world in exchange for shorter prison sentences.
It is now showing here.
Courtney (above) stars as Captain Boomerang, a mouthy troublemaker and master criminal who is caught by The Flash after a failed diamond heist.
Hernandez is the heavily tattooed El Diablo, a guilt-ridden gangster born with the gift of pyrokinesis.
The camaraderie among the huge cast was "awesome" and they were like "one big happy, dysfunctional family", said Courtney.
The 30-year-old Australian added that the chemistry stemmed from them not "taking ourselves seriously" and "lots of trash-talking going around". He told M: "But we respect one another's process of getting into character. We might be fooling around a lot, but we knew when to put a plug.
"We might be rambunctious, but at the end of the day, it was not that we were not serious about what we were doing. We were there for one another."
Added Hernandez: "I think everything gelled because of (director) David Ayer. He chose us for whatever reason to tell this interesting story about a host of villains.
"Because we were all piqued by his vision, and also because the story was not something we have seen before, we spent a lot of time rehearsing and getting to know each other.
"We built very solid friendships."
Hernandez, who broke out with Eli Roth's 2005 horror flick Hostel, is new to the blockbuster game and is "absorbing everything".
The Mexican-American might have been in the industry for over 17 years, but he has been under the radar with supporting parts in World Trade Center (2006), Lakeview Terrace (2008), Takers (2010) and even the female-centric comedy Bad Moms, which is now showing in cinemas.
Courtney, on the other hand, has starred in several biggies, such as Jack Reacher (2012), A Good Day To Die Hard (2013), I, Frankenstein (2014), Divergent (2014) and Terminator Genisys (2015).
ACTION FILMS
"I never started out my acting career wanting to do only action films," said the former model.
"Being in franchise-type movies was just the way things have panned out for me, and it looks like two of the big films (Die Hard and Terminator) won't be continuing... it's just the nature of things.
"I never thought I'd do a superhero film. I was foolish enough to believe that people would be tired of it by now but clearly this is not the case...
"I love all that (heavy action stuff), but I don't want that to be a measure of my career."
So will the character of Captain Boomerang, who has been established in the comics and DC's Arrow TV seriesas The Flash's nemesis, be showing up in Justice League, the next superhero offering from the DC Extended Universe featuring DC's favourite heroes such as Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Aquaman, The Flash and Cyborg?
And what about the planned stand-alone The Flash movie starring Ezra Miller, scheduled for a 2018 release?
Courtney said: "I love the idea that characters can cross over. That's the cool part of launching these properties... if Captain Boomerang would show, it'll be great, but who knows?"
The guys also reminisced about getting into character, something which Hernandez said was the worst part of the deal.
"It took about five hours to apply layers of (tattoo) transfers, followed by layers of spray and hand-painting, and then a final layer to seal it all in. "I would be there at 5am and the base camp was empty. Then people came, got their make-up done and filed out, and I was still sitting there. It was miserable," he said.
Courtney joked that he just stayed in character off-screen.
"(Boomerang) was a mess, and I was staying on my own when we were shooting in Toronto, so no one was around to tell me to clean up," he said, laughing.
"I think Jai, to some extent took his character home with him, and that helped all of us to see the 'beast' that come out of him," said Hernandez.
"I let myself go a lot," Courtney replied, chuckling. "I figured that when I showed up to work on Monday, I'd need to be this sleazy mess anyway, so might as well stay in it."
Suicide Squad by the numbers
$182m
Opening weekend gross at the US box office
97
Days that David Ayer took to complete principal photography
9
Length in metres of the flames rigged on set in the scene where Jay Hernandez's El Diablo gives the squad their
first glimpse of his powers
$236m
Suicide Squad's production budget
20
Tattoos that were applied to Margot Robbie every day — a visual declaration of Harley Quinn's love for the
Joker
Kinnaman on Suicide Squad's Rick Flag
In Suicide Squad, he's the good guy among the squad of supervillains who's tasked to keep the baddies in check.
But there is more to Joel Kinnaman's Rick Flag than that of a decorated military hero.
"I think that's why he's at loggerheads with Will Smith's Deadshot," the strapping Swedish actor told M in an interview at New York's Moynihan Station recently.
"Rick was offended when Deadshot commented both of them share similar qualities... how can that be when Deadshot kills for money, while Rick is doing (it) for his country?"
The disdain the characters initially have for each other is obvious.
But in real life, Kinnaman, 36, shares a tight bond with Hollywood star Smith, who spent time with Kinnaman in his hometown of Stockholm after production wrapped.
"This is a dream movie for us actors," said Kinnaman, whose last big-budget flick was 2014's RoboCop, in which he played the titular role.
"I think everybody knew from the get-go that this was going to be something very special.
"Because we all got along great and had a lot of fun together, that energy was transplanted onto the screen."
Kinnaman said Rick Flag was probably the most detailed character Suicide Squad's writer-director David Ayer created.
"David knew exactly who Rick Flag was because he had a lot of military friends who are just like Rick," said Kinnaman, adding that Ayer brought three of his good friends from the military on board to be advisers.
"These guys are the real-life Rick Flag, so the experiences and knowledge they shared to me were precious.
"There is a ton of real information for me to dive into, and when you have such a detailed understanding of your character, it's easier to give a nuanced performance."
However, Kinnaman's fondest takeaway from Suicide Squad was a strange incident that happened on the last day of production.
"Jai Courtney was chasing after David around the whole studio parking lot naked," he said, laughing.
"We'd never seen David so flustered and running, and there he was running for his dear life.
"It was like a real Terminator was chasing after him."
- Joanne Soh
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