We absolutely adored The Suicide Squad and gave it a 5/5 in our spoiler-free review, which you can read here. But in a movie focusing on no-hopers, destined to die, one character stood out. The true villain of the piece, Polka-Dot Man’s Mom, played by Lynne Ashe – the direct route of what made him the evil villain he is today. With only three brief wordless appearances, Ashe produces the biggest laugh out loud moments in the whole picture. Via email, FinalBoss talked all things Freud.
FinalBoss: How did you first hear about the role then? Was there an audition process? What were you told going into the character?
Lynne Ashe: At the time of the audition, it hadn’t been announced that this film was going to be produced, so I had no idea I was auditioning for The Suicide Squad! I received an audition tape request from the casting director, and the project was listed as “Untitled WB Project,” and I was told there were no lines. They requested that I improvise a dance to K.Flay’s “Can’t Sleep” – which is the actual song used in the club scene. I didn’t know what style of dance they were looking for, so I mixed it up with several different types of moves. This apparently worked to my advantage, as the role would be many different people dancing!
Everything with this project was super secret, so I wasn’t told really ANYTHING about the project in the beginning. When I went in for my first wardrobe fitting, I thought I was only in one small scene – I didn’t know about the other two scenes at that point. When I met the costume designer, Judianna Makovsky, I was a bit star-struck, as she was the costume designer for Harry Potter, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America, and Hunger Games. That was my first hint that I was going to be working in a blockbuster film. I walked into the area that they had set up for my fitting and saw more than a dozen different costumes. I had no idea they were all for me!
FB: Are you a mother yourself? How did you approach such an odd (and speech free) role?
LA: I do not have any children. As for character development, eventually, I was told that Polkadot Man’s Mom was a scientist who performed cruel lab experiments on her children. And that told me all I needed to know about what type of person she was.
FB: What was the actual filming process? Were you ever on set or simply in front of a green screen for all your scenes?
LA: For the jungle and the club scenes, I was on the actual set used for those scenes filmed with the main characters. For the jungle, they showed me a still taken of all the characters I was portraying, so I just tried to mimic their positions, stances, and facial expressions. For the dancing, I’d get into costume for each of the dancers, and the Director of Photography would pull up the footage of that particular dancer, and I’d practice a few minutes and then they would film it. I did that for all of the dancers as well as for the DJ! I don’t think you can see that I’m also the DJ because he’s hidden in the background of the scene!
FB: Did James Gunn direct you himself?
LA: I was able to meet James Gunn on set several weeks prior to filming. For my parts in the jungle and dancing scenes, I was part of the second unit (often in projects of this scope there will be more than one unit working at the same time) so I did not get to work with James directly until we did the Starro scene, which was done on blue screen.
FB: In a movie with so many scene-stealers, you really took it. How does it feel to be one of the standouts of perhaps the biggest film of the year?
LA: I really have to chuckle at this question. I was never given a script for the film – most of the actors weren’t given a full script – again, because of the cloak of secrecy around the project. So I honestly had no idea how my character fit into the movie at all. I didn’t know if she was important or if she would wind up on the cutting room floor. And since I was under a strict NDA, I couldn’t even talk about it. I did not know that my parts actually made it into the film until a week before it opened, when the full cast was finally listed on IMDb. And I realized “okay – I made it in.” And I saw it for the first time in the theatre like everyone else. And was both shocked & thrilled that the part was larger than I realized!
FB: Has it sunk in being essentially the first canon DCEU MILF?
LA: Hahahaha! I have to admit that there is a certain sector of the population whose preference is my type, so whenever any of my film or tv appearances come out, I always receive inappropriate messages that I promptly delete and block. I was NOT prepared for the attention TSS has garnered though. It includes teenagers young enough to be my grandchildren, hahaha! I mean, REALLY?
FB: You’re probably going to get an action figure, you know…
LA: Haha! OMG I would love that!
FB: What’s up next?
LA: I have half a dozen or so upcoming projects that have been filmed already – most of them not even listed on IMDb yet. The timing on TSS release is rather exciting though because I have four different things airing two months from now in October! Dopesick is a new series on Hulu mid October, and I have a small role, appearing in the first couple of episodes. Another small role in an episode of Season 4 of Claws (TNT), and a horror-type film that will be on AMC. The most exciting thing though for DC fans — now I can’t name the project or talk about the role — but starting this week, season two of a DC television series will begin… and towards the end of the season, they introduce their new villains for following seasons. Let’s just say that DC fans might be seeing me a lot more on-screen!
The wonderful Lynne Ashe can be followed on Instagram at @ashelynne6, Twitter on @lynneashe and at her Facebook fan page. Also, Lynne makes jewellery and has a little shop on Etsy called Ashelyn Designs. It’s been discovered since the film opened, and Lynne tells us things are flying off the shelves!
The Suicide Squad is in cinemas everywhere now. You can read our five star review here.
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