Will Smith tore his calf "six weeks into rehearsals" on ‘Suicide Squad’ and was out of action for six weeks.
The 47-year-old actor plays crack assassin Deadshot in the DC Comics anti-hero film and for the action-packed role he had to get in incredible shape so he could do his own stunts.
However, Will tore his leg muscle during his preparations and was left in agony and he blames himself for trying to keep up with his younger castmates, including Margot Robbie, Jai Courtney, Joel Kinnaman, Cara Delevingne and Scott Eastwood.
In an interview with UK TV show ‘This Morning’, he said: "It took twice as many hours to get in shape than it did 10 years ago. I realised I was in my 40s on this movie trying to be with all those 20 year olds.
"Six weeks into rehearsal I tore my calf and was down for six weeks. When you shut down one of these movies for six weeks it can go really wrong."
Father-of-three Will doesn’t believe he would have suffered the same injury when he was in his prime in his 20s.
He laughed: "I have changed. That (younger) guy’s calf wouldn’t have snapped for nothing!"
Will accepted he couldn’t do everything his younger co-stars were up to and he had to politely decline 26-year-old Margot’s offer of a ‘Squad’ tattoo when she brought a body inking gun to the set one day, because his wife Jada Pinkett Smith would not have been impressed if he’d agreed to the impromptu skin etching.
He said: "So, Margo comes to work one day with a tattoo gun and she’s like, ‘We’re all getting tattoos.’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t think we are.’ She tattooed probably 17 people on the set and I was like, I’m a grown-ass man I can’t go, ‘Hey baby, look what I did at work today. Jada, look, look, I did this, I got a tattoo, it says ‘Squad’.’ She’d have been like, ‘Yeah, no.’"
Will Smith’s Suicide Squad injury
