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See The Suicide Squad Make-Up Test That Made Polka-Dot Man Weep

Polka-Dot Man - The Suicide Squad Warner Bros.
By Vanessa Armstrong

James Gunn's "The Suicide Squad" brought some much-maligned DC characters to the big screen and gave them a depth that they might not have had before. Perhaps the most surprisingly touching character, however, was Polka-Dot Man, played by David Dastmalchian.

When the film was in development, Dastmalchian underwent polka-dot makeup tests that morphed him into a grotesque figure. Those tests covered the actor in horrific, painful-looking lumps, and those lumps brought him tears. These tears were not tears of anguish, however — they were tears of joy.

Polka Dot Disease – The Modern Embodiment of Monsters

The Suicide Squad Warner Bros.

We have these images courtesy of Gunn's Twitter account, where the director shared photos from Dastmalchian's first make-up test, done by the VFX company, Legacy Effects.

"1st test of Legacy's makeup for extreme polka dot disease," Gunn wrote. "Dave has always loved Chaney, Karloff & the Universal monsters & was overcome with emotion that he was their modern embodiment & began to weep. I thought this was a good time to take photos."

Dastmalchian looks suitably horrific in the photos, and the fact he's crying from happiness gives us all an inkling into the actor's psyche, something that Gunn went on to point out. "I like to think I was laughing with Dave as opposed to at him," Gunn wrote in a follow-up tweet. "But the contrast of being so moved by something so horrifying delighted me — just like Dave's unique personality does all the time as my friend & collaborator."

Gunn finished up the tweet thread with more images from that practical makeup test. These images had Dastmalchian practically covered with radioactive pustules:

As Gunn points out in the final tweet, this version of Polka-Dot Man is a bit different than what we see in the final film. He's not so covered in pustules in "The Suicide Squad," for example, though it's hard to say which version is more disturbing. There are a lot of things disturbing about Polka-Dot Man frankly, but he's also endearing in his own, sad way. The journey he takes is also an emotional one, though to say more here would bring me into spoiler territory. All I'll say here is he has mommy issues. 

Those who want to see the final version of Polka-Dot Man's pustules or see the character become a real superhero can watch "The Suicide Squad," which will be on HBO Max for just a few more days.

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