The Suicide Squad writer/director James Gunn discussed the similarities between Pete Davidson’s Blackguard and Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Speaking to Variety, Gunn was asked if he intentionally wrote the character of Blackguard to resemble Davidson’s real-life persona as a “mouthy jackass.” “No, that was all written before I knew it was gonna be Pete,” Gunn replied. “I Like Pete a lot.” While there was some improvisation, Gunn confirmed that most of Blackguard’s dialogue was pre-written before Davidson – who performed the lines in his own unique style – came on board.
Gunn went on to compare Davidson’s approach to RDJ’s performance as Iron Man in the MCU, as both actors heightened their characters by adding their own personal flair to the dialogue.
Davidson’s Blackguard, whose real name is Richard Hertz, is a member of the Task Force X strike team sent to Corto Maltese. The criminal is a master combatant and marksman with superhuman strength, despite being portrayed in The Suicide Squad as brainless. In fact, one of the aforementioned improvised scenes featured Nathan Fillion’s T.D.K. showing Blackguard how to buckle his seat belt to make him appear to be the “dumbest guy in the world.”
Conversely, RDJ’s approach to playing Iron Man mirrored the actor’s quick-witted nature in real life, which added spark to the character of Tony Stark as a genius, billionaire, playboy and philanthropist. Both Stark and Blackguard share the same arrogance in their respective franchises, albeit with Stark projecting a higher amount of intelligence than Blackguard. RDJ is also known for improvising on set, including the now-infamous “I am Iron Man” line from the character’s 2008 live-action debut.
Source: Variety
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