Exclusive Interview With David Dastmalchian At NYCC
Image Source: CultureSlate
Most people know David Dastmalchian from his roles as The Polka Dot Man in The Suicide Squad and Thomas Schiff in The Dark Knight. He’s been in countless other projects for both TV and film, and has worked with Denis Villeneuve a bunch as well. He’s not only an actor, but also a comic writer, with a new book, Through, now available. I had the pleasure of speaking with him at NYCC this year.
Q: How has your Comic Con been so far?
David Dastmalchian: It’s funny, because I spend all my time doing press for movies and TV, and comic cons are a great place to engage with people about movies and television, but like it is called comic con for a reason. So it's really wonderful to be in the hallowed ground of a place where I used to go as a fan, and now I get to be a creator. It’s awesome!
Q: Everyone is SOO hyped for your Venom story you wrote recently for Venom: Black, White and Blood.. But what drew you to write a story about Venom?
DD: I did want to previously, and when I started working with Marvel, I said I want to push boundaries, I want to do something we haven't gotten to do with Venom. Hm, who would you never imagine Venom fighting? And I was like, Power Pack! So they let me do Venom vs Power Pack last year. This year, I was talking to Mark and was like I want to see the concept of like parasitic, emotionally exploited if rage is such a deeply psychological metaphor for what I think is terrifying about the human condition, and Venom is such a great concept in that space. I want to try and tell an Eddie Brock story, but almost through the lens of a David Fincher film, like Se7en, and Mark was like what if we do Eddie, pre the Venom we all know, like pre-Secret Wars when when we first get introduced to him, and Spider-Man and just Peter Parker getting pushed into the subway and I was like that’s perfect. Let’s feel that sense of victimhood, rage, and some anger and justification that Eddie feels towards the world, and how perfect a target he would be for something like what becomes Venom.
RELATED:
Image Source: Comingsoon.net
Q: How did you get into writing comics?
DD: I grew up reading them, and I have always been collecting comics since I was 9. I have a really massive and extensive collection. I never imagined writing them, and I had come up with the idea for a television show about an alcoholic news reporter who becomes a horror host and ends up finding out the horror host she replaced was actually an appointed monster hunter. So I told this idea to an executive TV creator, when I was working on MacGyver, and his name is Peter. Peter introduced me to the publishers of Dark Horse, and he said I think you’re idea might make a really good comic. So I pitched it to Mike Richardson at San Diego Comic Con in roughly 2016 or 2017, and Dark Horse said we love the idea, and I got to write my first comic with Dark Horse and have now gone on and done comics with DC, Image, Marvel, Z2, and many more.
Q: Do you have a favorite that you’ve done?
DD: Count Crowley is always going to be my baby, but I think Through, which is coming out right now, we actually just launched last night, probably the most important book I’ve ever read.
Q: When it comes to the character of Abner Krill (the Polka Dot Man), what was the ONE BIGGEST thing that drew you into playing this character, and why do you think everyone loved him in the end?
DD: Well, anything James writes I’m drawn to, and I love complex, complicated characters, and Abner was all of that. He felt very sad, but lovable, a has-been villain, with the potential of redemption. I think redemption in stories is so important, like in my book Through, I wanted to write a story about my hero character in it, her name is Alex, and she struggles with the same compulsive controlling dependency disorders that I have. As someone who has manic episodes, has wrestled with borderline manifestation personalities, i’ve had. This character in the story Through, she’s got this power to control everything and everyone around her, like Abner has this power to melt the world around him with polka dots, and she realizes that it’s actually not keeping the people and places around her safe. She’s not safe and supportive and is actually destroying and pushing everything away from even though the child within her is so scared and is trying to calm everything. I’ve felt that way. I want every character that I write, that I perform, to bring something personal to me to life, because I think it’s more meaningful, and so yeah. Any character I get to play or write or create when they touch something like that in me, I just say, Yes, I want to tell that story.
Q: How do you prepare for a role?
DD: It depends. Everything is different. I often try and find my way from the outside in. So I’ll look at a character and think about, this is where he grew up, this is what he does for work, these are the kinds of people he’s interacted with, and so I build from that outside in.
Q: You have worked with Denis Villeneuve quite a bit. What’s it like working with him?
DD: He’s amazing, brilliant, incredible, a filmmaker. He’s a visionary. He creates an incredible space where you can feel safe to just let your imagination go wild. I love him deeply.
Q: Do you have a favorite character that you’ve played?
DD: I’d say definitely, The Polka Dot man was a big one. I loved getting to be Bob Taylor in Prisoners. I love Thomas Schiff in The Dark Knight. Very lucky.
Q: Is there any character you really want to play that you haven’t been able to yet?
DD: So many. I would love to play Dracula someday.
Q: This next question is going to be a bit more niche, but I am from Chicago, and Svengoolie is our big horror host there; you were even in an episode. How did you get into Svengoolie?
DD: He’s a friend of mine. I was doing press for a movie, and I was at the TV station in Chicago doing a morning show, and I saw some of the sets for Svengoolie, and I was like Oh my god, I’m a Svengoolie fan, and they were like I think he’s here. So his producer, Jim, came over and said hi to me and their fans of mine, and all of my comic book stuff, and I’m a fan of their show, and we just became friends.
Q: You were in Late Night With The Devil, and there was a Berwyn reference. Was that related to Svengoolie at all, and was it you who included that?
DD: Of course! Yeah, that was all me!
READ NEXT:
Latest News
Featured
