{"id":293981,"date":"2021-07-08T17:39:33","date_gmt":"2021-07-08T14:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/suicide-squad-dune-and-more-film\/"},"modified":"2021-07-08T17:39:33","modified_gmt":"2021-07-08T14:39:33","slug":"suicide-squad-dune-and-more-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/suicide-squad-dune-and-more-film\/","title":{"rendered":"#Suicide Squad, Dune, and More \u2013 \/Film"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Suicide Squad, Dune, and More \u2013 \/Film<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

What a time for\u00a0David Dastmalchian<\/strong>. For starters, we\u2019ll soon see him as Polka-Dot Man in\u00a0The Suicide Squad<\/strong><\/em>. What was once an obscure comic book character may soon be, thanks to James Gunn<\/strong> and the actor, a character we won\u2019t soon forget. Dastmalchian is also in the adaptation of one of the most celebrated science<\/a> fiction novels of all time,\u00a0Dune<\/em><\/strong>. It\u2019s the actor\u2019s third collaboration with filmmaker\u00a0Denis Villeneuve<\/strong>, who previously cast him in Prisoners<\/em> and Blade Runner 2049<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Plus, the actor recently finished writing a script<\/a> for a horror movie he sounds jazzed about. Genre is his jam, having grownup with horror movies<\/a> and comic books. He even wrote a Dark Horse Comic, Count Crowley: Reluctant Midnight Monster Hunter<\/em>, which was a dream come true for him.\u00a0Dastmalchian is making big impressions on the screen, but he\u2019s also making them on the page with two personal dramas he wrote:\u00a0All Creatures Here Below\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Animals<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Recently, the actor talked to us about the year he\u2019s having, his past roles, how David Lynch changed his life, and one suggestion he has for anyone after<\/em> they read this interview.
\n
\nYour comic, Count Crowley: Reluctant Midnight Monster Hunter, that is a great read. Will we see more of it?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank you so much. Thank you. I\u2019m so proud of Count Crowley, and the pandemic affected many more important things than my comic book. But sadly, as the pandemic started and everything kind of shut down, so did Count Crowley. And so, thankfully the fanbase continues to seem to grow. I keep hearing from people and I\u2019m so proud of what we did with those first four issues, that I am really praying every day that enough of the trade does well enough. I\u2019ve got stories for years that I want to tell from Jerri\u2019s journey into becoming an appointed monster hunter. So thanks, man. That means a lot.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a good balance of tongue-in-cheek and real personal issues.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I realized that one of the things you wanted to talk about with me today is my work and my career. And something about Count Crowley, I\u2019m not overstating the fact that it really is truly my proudest achievement as a storyteller. And I have a number of achievements that I\u2019m incredibly proud of as a storyteller. I\u2019ve been able to work with some of the best directors in cinema, I\u2019ve been a part of some incredible film and television projects, I\u2019ve made my own small films like Animals<\/em> and All Creatures Here Below<\/em>. But one of the things that as a kid of genre, and as someone who grew up just addicted to horror, sci-fi and comic books, I dreamt of spending a lifetime somehow involved in that world, whether it was just as a reader, collector and fan, or as I\u2019ve been so lucky to discover myself, as a creative. One thing I never realized or recognized was how much the issues that I wrestle with could become a part of the stories that I was yearning to tell through genre.
\nIt\u2019s no secret that I had near death struggles with addiction and mental illness. I feel that the human experience is riddled with a lot of challenges that feel at times hopelessly impossible to overcome. And so, a lot of those ideas and questions that I have about what it means to be a person and why we have to struggle with these things, I have been able to explore through the world of genre. And I feel so lucky, because now as an actor, I\u2019m going to be a part of some of the biggest movies ever made. They\u2019re about to come out, as people are returning to the cinema, and they wrestle with huge ideas that are super important. It\u2019s a really cool moment for me personally, so I\u2019m glad that we\u2019re having this conversation.<\/p>\n

Likewise. You were inspired by Friday Night Creature features growing up, right? That influenced the comic as well?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Growing up in Kansas City, our creature feature was Crematia Mortem\u2019s Friday Nightmare<\/em>. She had this incredible show on our local Fox affiliate, TV 41. I would sneak downstairs to watch it. I grew up in a pretty religious household and horror movies were definitely not celebrated, nor were comic books or sci-fi in my house. So for me, that was the secret of pleasure that I was glued to the screen. And that\u2019s how I learned about everything from some of my favorite actors, the Lon Chaneys and Peter Cushings of the world, to Universal, Hammer and past films.<\/p>\n

Crematia Mortem, she\u2019s a friend to this day now. I\u2019ve become friends with Roberta Solomon<\/strong>, and she\u2019s actually a fan of Count Crowley. I am in her fan club, and now she\u2019s in the Count Crowley fan club. It\u2019s one of the many incredible gifts of this career that I\u2019ve been able to have, that I\u2019ve gotten to become friends with somebody that I\u2019d been a fan of for so long.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s great. How does your love of comic books influence how you play a character like Polka-Dot Man, or even your role in The Dark Knight<\/em>? Can the art inspire how you play a role?\u00a0<\/strong>
\nThere\u2019s something about the combination of the tonal quality that you can take away from the art that brought characters to life and obviously the writing, the voices of these characters. My very first time in a film was working as a goon for the Joker. When you\u2019re Joker\u2019s thug, and you\u2019re someone who\u2019s spent your life reading Batman comics and understands the Joker, then it really influences and shapes the way that you move your face, the way that you use your voice, the way that you think about the world. And just as much like the bright vibrancy of when I was really cracking into the Hank Pym stories.<\/p>\n

My introduction to the Avengers was Avengers 249. It was the first comic book I actually ever bought, but I quickly got on the West Coast Avengers train when I was a kid and I started collecting comic books. And the brightness, the humor, the color of that influenced the way that I approached bringing Kurt to life in the Ant-Man<\/em> movies.<\/p>\n

With Polka-Dot Man, though, it all comes to a screeching halt. When James Gunn told me he wanted me to be a part of The Suicide Squad<\/em>, first of all, I nearly fainted. Second of all, I nearly fainted again. Third of all, I was humiliatingly embarrassed to say, \u201cJames, I don\u2019t know anything about Polka-Dot Man.\u201d He laughed so hard, because he was like, \u201cDon\u2019t worry. It\u2019s okay.\u201d But I feel like someone that knows a lot about comics. And so, the fact that I really knew nothing about Abner Krill, and my mind was racing, going, \u201cWhat is it? What does he do again? What is his thing?\u201d And then I read James\u2019 script, and it is such an incredible script.<\/p>\n

The movie is so powerful, so bold. It\u2019s a very brave and just insane film. It\u2019s not like anything people have ever really seen before. And he pushes all the boundaries in every way you can imagine, visually, violently, comedically, emotionally. And so, I read the script, and I just fell deeply in love with Abner and the way that James brought him to life.<\/p>\n

I went back and looked at the Abner of the comics past and the color and the tone of that. It really did influence and impact the way that I wanted to stand, the way that I wanted to carry my body. But with Abner in particular, most importantly was just what James had given me in the gift of his script.<\/p>\n

Within the same year, I also went and filmed Dune<\/em> under the magnificent guidance of the visionary, who is Denis Villeneuve<\/strong>. I got the opportunity to bring to life a character who I love from the Frank Herbert novel \u201cDune,\u201d which is by far one of the greatest sci-fi novels ever written, in my opinion.
\nSo the character, Piter de Vries, was always utterly fascinating and disturbing and a dark place to go. I took a great deal of inspiration from the book. But then when I read the script, I was like, \u201cOh, he\u2019s right there.\u201d And obviously being in the hands of someone like Denis, it was kind of a no brainer, just what he wanted him to look and move and feel like. Denis is very good at communicating those things.<\/p>\n

One of the most passionate guys you\u2019ll ever talk to.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, just such a deeply kind and generous human being. It\u2019s interesting. Both of those men are, they\u2019re very different. Their directing styles, their cinematic creations are so distinct and are so unique to them as individuals. But something that they both have in common, aside from being insanely talented, is they\u2019re both deeply kind and deeply generous people. I think that\u2019s what cracks the light through in their work. Because even if they\u2019re working in really dark places, there\u2019s always this light of humanity that can break through. And it\u2019s important, if not vital, to making lasting cinema that means something beyond just a two-hour escape over the summer, you know?<\/p>\n

As a performer, how do you stay true to the language of Herbert\u2019s Dune<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The script is so true to the spirit of the novel, and there is an elevated sense of purpose and tone. It\u2019s such grand science fiction storytelling, and it\u2019s so mind-blowing visually. But then when you get down to the characters and the way they speak, you just have to approach it the way that you do with any character. And for me, finding that was very, very challenging. Because Piter is not like any human I\u2019ve ever encountered before.<\/p>\n

I guarantee you, any other character I\u2019ve ever played, there are things about them, that they may be extreme, they may look wacky or have some kind of crazy power, but there\u2019s always something I can latch onto and connect to a human being that I\u2019ve either known for a part of my own personality that I\u2019m familiar with, obviously, because it\u2019s me.<\/p>\n

With Piter, there\u2019s that psychopathy that comes from being a twisted Mentat, that is frightening and disturbing. And to put myself in his mindset was hard. So to utter a language, because Piter\u2019s brain operates at such a high level, he is for all intents and purposes, a human computer, speaking in the highly specific way in which the language would come out was actually \u2026 It made perfect sense. It seemed to really add a great deal to the character. It felt more like an assist than an obstacle, if that makes sense.<\/p>\n

Speaking of language, you\u2019ve delivered some of the finest in theater. You\u2019ve performed in Sam Shepard and Tennessee Williams plays. How do you get to the spirit of their writings?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m so lucky, because I was really starting to work a lot in theater in Chicago at a moment when some of the directors and producers of those plays were willing to take a chance on an actor like myself. I was trying to make choices that felt the most authentic to me as a person, but which oftentimes fell outside of the norm when it came to the way these certain characters in these certain plays had been approached before.<\/p>\n

I felt a great deal of responsibility when bringing to life, say, Tom Wingfield in Tennessee Williams\u2019 The Glass Menagerie<\/em>. When I did it at Shattered Globe Theater in Chicago, I\u2019d stand in front of that audience, and I\u2019m getting to deliver some of the best dialogue ever written. And while at the same time, knowing that I can\u2019t just recite these words eloquently. I owe it to Tennessee Williams, I owe it to the other artists involved in these productions, and I owe it to the audience, to allow those words to swim around as deep into the belly of my subconscious as possible, so that what came out and the reactions that I had vocally and with my body and my face were as authentic and as moving as possible for the audience, so that they experienced the kind of transformative power that Williams\u2019 words can have on an observer.<\/p>\n

And the exact same thing happened for me with Sam Shepherd. And the same thing happened to me with William Shakespeare and other great playwrights that I got the opportunity to bring to life. But with those two particular playwrights, both Sam Shepard and Tennessee Williams, not only were they and are they giant influences on me as a storyteller, but the sense of responsibility that I had to bring their words to license the most authentic way possible, pushed me nearly to the breaking point.<\/p>\n

Both of those productions were incredibly rewarding and satisfying, but they were also challenging, to the point that I had to crawl home some nights from the theater. I have learned in the years since, for my acting, I have to continue to go to what is the equivalent of school. I want to be able to recreate and reproduce all of those emotions as authentically as possible night after night, take after take, scene after scene, day after day, without breaking, I came close on both of those productions to breaking. And thank goodness, I didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

When did writing become an aspiration for you?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been writing since the sixth grade in a journal in some form or another. I always loved writing scary stories. I used to write my own Choose Your Own Adventures<\/em>. I was a big fan of the Indiana Jones Choose Your Own Adventure<\/em> books when I was a kid. And then that translated into my dream of creating comic books. And so, writing was always an important part of my life. Journaling and writing goals and just poetry and expressing myself through words privately was always something that was just something I really enjoy doing, and I felt compelled to.<\/p>\n

When I got clean in 2002, I really had walked away from acting for several years. My addiction and mental illness was so extreme that I didn\u2019t believe that I was going to live any longer, let alone ever act again. So when I did get a second lease at life and I got the opportunity to find a path of mental wellness and sobriety, I just didn\u2019t think that acting was going to be in the cards for me again.<\/p>\n

I poured all of my creative impulse and energy into writing, and I started to really study the craft of writing. I learned that, that\u2019s exactly what it is. It\u2019s a craft, and it requires a great deal of discipline and daily work and sacrifice. I started writing a short story, that evolved into a long outline, that evolved into what I thought was going to be a play, that then evolved into what became the feature screenplay for the first film that I wrote, which is called Animals<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I poured all of my own personal thoughts and feelings about relationships and love and addiction and the struggle with dependency, be it to drugs or other people. And thank God, people read it and really responded to it. I got the chance to make that film. And that\u2019s yet another, right up there next to Count Crowley and All Creatures Here Below<\/em>, one of those experiences that is something I\u2019m the most proud of.<\/p>\n

I know you\u2019re someone who writes down your dreams and goals. What\u2019s presently on that list, as far as writing goes?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, I am so grateful as a fan for the renaissance we\u2019re experiencing and the world of horror and genre, thanks to visionaries from Jordan Peele, to Robert Eggers and so many others, who have just redefining what we can do with genre storytelling.<\/p>\n

I am working very hard at the moment to bring to the screen a feature film that wrestles with addiction and mental illness, but is absolutely in the horror and genre space. It\u2019s called Hide Your Eyes<\/em>, and I have a genius director from the South, a wicked woman named Erica Scoggins<\/strong>, who is just awesome. We are putting together the film as we speak.<\/p>\n

I have dreams of what I could do with Count Crowley. I want to tell you about so many other things that I can\u2019t talk about yet, but I have some big visions for stories that I think could reach audiences in the mature sphere, when it comes to really deeply terrifying horror. I also think there\u2019s a space that I could really thrive in and write for the whole gambit of audiences.<\/p>\n

I have a seven and a four-year-old here, and they are some of the biggest monster fans I know. They are true, dyed-in-the-wool, monster kids. I want to write stories that they can enjoy. I spend a lot of time laying in bed at night, just dreaming. I\u2019m trying to use every free minute I\u2019ve got during the day to get them written down, while at the same time, being as fun and cool a dad as possible.<\/p>\n

That sounds like a good day. One of the early goals you accomplished, which you had written down, was working with David Lynch. I have to ask, how did the reality compare to the dream in that instance?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s superseded the dream. Being in the presence of David Lynch changed my life. I watched an artist in their true element, getting to create every day and bring to life a story that he had worked so hard on and he knew backwards and forwards. He knew everyone\u2019s lines, he knew every thing that was meant to happen. And yet at the same time, he was open to things happening that were never expected.<\/p>\n

I wonder sometimes if he is truly a human being. There was something almost preternatural about him and being in his presence. He\u2019s very kind, he\u2019s very human. It\u2019s not that he\u2019s not brimming with humanity, but watching his creative process take place, it felt like I was sometimes observing a wizard. I\u2019ll never forget it, and it was a great lesson for me as well in the power of manifesting our dreams.<\/p>\n

I have big dreams and hopes and goals for my work as an actor. When I moved to Los Angeles, the three biggest ones that I had at the top of my board were to work with the Muppets, to become a James Bond villain, and to work with David Lynch. And I actually got to work with David Lynch. I dreamed of it. I just never thought it was actually going to really happen. It did.<\/p>\n

I hope everybody who reads this will take a minute when they\u2019re done and write something down on a piece of paper that they don\u2019t think is possible, but that they dream about and commit to it, with that ink on the paper, and then hang it up above their desk, above their bed, above their mirror in the bathroom, and look at it every day. You can do it.<\/p>\n

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“#Suicide Squad, Dune, and More \u2013 \/Film” What a time for\u00a0David Dastmalchian. For starters, we\u2019ll soon see him as Polka-Dot Man in\u00a0The Suicide Squad. What was once an obscure comic book character may soon be, thanks to James Gunn and the actor, a character we won\u2019t soon forget. Dastmalchian is also in the adaptation of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":293982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/David-e1625753202977.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1568,1513,1522,1578,111003,57888,31721,5144,1570,10294,19315,1361,5535],"class_list":["post-293981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-featured-stories-sidebar","tag-action-adventure","tag-adaptation","tag-comic-book-superhero","tag-count-crowley","tag-david-dastmalchian","tag-david-lynch","tag-dune","tag-features","tag-interviews","tag-james-gunn","tag-movies","tag-suicide-squad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}