Jai Courtney says Captain Boomerang in ‘Suicide Squad’ is ‘closer to myself than any role I’ve ever played’
As Warner Bros is set to drop Suicide Squad, Jai Courtney opened up to the press about his role as Captain Boomerang, one of the many villains uniting on their “suicidal” mission under the control of Amanda Waller, played by Viola Davis. After big roles in Jack Reacher, A Good Day to Die Hard, Terminator Genisys, and the Divergent film series, Courtney surprised everyone with his personal connection to the role.
“It’s funny because it’s, yeah, I mean there’s something kind of interesting about, you know, I feel closer to this than anything else,” Courtney admitted to the press at a Suicide Squad set visit about his character, “but from a sort of performance perspective I mean it may feel like, I mean it’s more of a character than anything I’ve had the opportunity to take on. It’s actually closer to myself than any other role I’ve ever played.”
Courtney explained: “Because I’m a bogan piece of sh-t,” he joked.
To translate Australian and New Zealand slang: bogan describes a person of lower working-class background who speaks, dresses, and behaves in an unrefined or unsophisticated manner. (h/t Comic Book for the transcription here)
Suicide Squad producers Richard Suckle and Andy Horwitz also believe Courtney’s version of Boomerang closely resembles the actor’s genuinely outrageous personality.
“Jai Courtney, Captain Boomerang. A great actor and a great guy,” Suckle praised.
“One of the fun things about this character is that I’ve not seen every film Jai has made but I’ve probably seen most of them and I don’t think he’s ever been able to play a role that allows him to really be funny and he’s incredibly funny. You can just look at him and I’m sure the way you would describe him without me telling you what he does in the movie would probably be very close to what I’m about to say. He is a wise ass. He’s a hunk to a certain extent and he’s got an incredible wise cracking sense of humor. At the same time, he is equally dangerous and has these very dangerous boomerangs, one of which he’s holding. Now there is a boomerang that is actually a drone boomerang, which plays a role in the movie. He’s just a fun character that shakes things up and also has a level of unpredictability as well.”
“It’s the first time Jai is really going to use his real accent in a movie, and we always say this, Jai is playing Jai,” Horwitz added. “His character is based on reality in his real life. He’s a whole lot of fun in real life and he’s a jokester and he’s constantly stirring things up.”
Written and directed by David Ayer (Fury), the film also stars Will Smith as Deadshot, Award-winning Dallas Buyers Club Jared Leto as Joker, Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street, Legend of Tarzan), Joel Kinnaman (RoboCop) with Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Adam Beach, Cara Delevingne, Karen Fukuhara and Common.
Ike Barinholtz, Jim Parrack, Scott Eastwood and David Harbour also have roles.
Suicide Squad opens worldwide in 3D, and in 2D, and in select IMAX 3D theaters beginning August 5, 2016.
Check out the next few pages for some photos from Suicide Squad
Jai Courtney in “Divergent”
Jai Courtney in “Terminator Genesys”
