David Dastmalchian opens up about the emotional connection he shares with his The Suicide Squad character Polka-Dot Man. Director James Gunn’s first DCEU movie arrived in theaters and on HBO Max last weekend and introduced audiences to the newest Task Force X. While four characters were brought back from 2016’s Suicide Squad, much of the cast for the new film was comprised of newcomers, from Idris Elba’s Bloodsport to Michael Rooker’s Savant. To come up with the colorful and eclectic members of The Suicide Squad, Gunn went deep into DC Comics lore.

Because of that, it’s safe to say some of the characters in The Suicide Squad aren’t ones who would normally fit into a comic book movie. One of the film’s breakout characters, Dastmalchian’s Polka-Dot Man, is an obscure comics villain who is often treated as a joke. And yet, under Gunn’s careful hand, Polka-Dot Man (aka Abner Krill) turned into The Suicide Squad‘s saddest and most earnest character, thanks to a mixture of hilarious jokes, a tragic backstory, and cool powers.

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Dastmalchian recalled how he felt when he first read Gunn’s Suicide Squad script in a recent interview with THR. The actor stayed up until 4am reading it, and he was overwhelmed when he saw how pivotal of a character Polka-Dot Man proved to be. In response, he sent Gunn an emotionally raw voice message, which he then shared with THR for the interview. Dastmalchian said:

“I’m just really honored that I get to play this character. He is me. You don’t even know how much my dumb skin conditions haunted me as a kid and how much I felt there was something wrong with me. And how bad I wanted to kill myself … 18 years ago, when I got the closest I ever came to taking my own life. And now I love my life. And I’m so grateful that I have Eve and the kids and I’ve got my friends and you.”

Dastmalchian has vitiligo, a disorder that causes loss of pigmentation in the skin. One can see how he could find similarities between himself and Polka-Dot Man, who frequently suffers from the growth of polka dots beneath his skin as a result of experiments his mother ran on him as a child. Polka-Dot Man might not look like a highly relatable character on the surface, but Dastmalchian saw something deeper within him. That came through in his performance, as he treated Polka-Dot Man with dignity and respect. The Suicide Squad once again proves how important representation can be, even when it comes from unexpected places.

Polka-Dot Man is just one of many breakout characters from The Suicide Squad, which also earned praise for figures like Ratcatcher II (Daniela Melchior) and King Shark, aka Nanaue (Sylvester Stallone). After taking on Guardians of the Galaxy and making audiences feel for a racoon and a sentient tree, it was clear that Gunn would be more than capable of endearing audiences to the questionable members of The Suicide Squad. He certainly managed to do just that, and his work even touched Dastmalchian on a deeply personal level. Dastmalchian’s message to Gunn is poignant and impactful, and fans are lucky that he was the one who got to bring Polka-Dot Man to life.

Source: THR

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Rachel Labonte
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Rachel LaBonte is a news, feature, and movie review writer for Screen Rant with a deep passion for film and television. A graduate of Emerson College, she majored in Media Arts Production while specializing in screenwriting. She’s been a writer ever since high school when she realized she was rather good at it and joined as many entertainment news clubs as she could while in school. Most notably, she wrote for Emerson’s website Emertainment Monthly, and one of her film reviews won an Evvy (Emerson’s student awards) for Best Review. Her deep love of movies led to her working at a movie theater for five years, which she loved despite the angry customers. An avid reader who constantly buys books before reading the ones she already owns, Rachel is a huge fan of superheroes (especially of the Marvel variety) and wizards and will likely never be able to catch up on all the movies/TV shows she longs to watch.

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