The Suicide Squad star Steve Agee had a rough time as King Shark’s stand-in.
There are two characters in The Suicide Squad that needed a stand-in — Weasel and King Shark. Weasel is a pretty small character in comparison to King Shark, who needs a really tall actor to do all of the motion capture work and James Gunn found the right man in his friend and long-time collaborator Steve Agee. You may be thinking, “Isn’’t Sylvester Stallone playing King Shark?” Well, you’d be partially right. Stallone will voice the character while Agee did all of the movement for King Shark and that was as challenging as you would think.
Way back in 2019, Stock Market Pioneer got to visit the set of The Suicide Squad and had the chance to see Agee do a bit of motion capture work for the character and we spoke to him about how challenging the role was. “It’s still challenging. We’ve done a lot of water work, and I obviously can’t wear this felt suit in the water,” said Agee. “So they gave me just a gray wetsuit, which is great when we’re in the water, or in the rain, but then sitting around the whole rest of the day in a neoprene wetsuit, it’s like one of those suits that a wrestler would wear to lose weight. I get home at the end of the day, and I’ve just got rashes all over me.”
It turns out that moving around in water wasn’t the only issue that Agee had with playing King Shark. According to the actor, the motion capture suit was pretty heavy. “There is also a chest piece I have to wear for King Shark, which they’ve modified, thankfully, because the first couple of weeks it was … They made it out of foam, but then they painted it, and the paint hardened, and just made it really dense. And the first thing they said was, ‘Oh, no. This is a lot heavier than we thought it would be,” Agee told reporters on set. “It was so heavy. My first day of shooting was a pre-shoot, it wasn’t even the first day of principal photography. It’s that one up there on the top with all the little fish. And it’s just me all day running around with like a 50 pound, like girdle, like corset… like it also crushes you.”
Are you excited to see King Shark in The Suicide Squad? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
You can check out the synopsis for The Suicide Squad below:
Welcome to hell—a.k.a. Belle Reve, the prison with the highest mortality rate in the US of A. Where the worst Super-Villains are kept and where they will do anything to get out—even join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X. Today’s do-or-die assignment? Assemble a collection of cons, including Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Captain Boomerang, Ratcatcher 2, Savant, King Shark, Blackguard, Javelin and everyone’s favorite psycho, Harley Quinn. Then arm them heavily and drop them (literally) on the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese. Trekking through a jungle teeming with militant adversaries and guerrilla forces at every turn, the Squad is on a search-and-destroy mission, with only Colonel Rick Flag on the ground to make them behave…and Amanda Waller’s government techies in their ears, tracking their every movement. And as always, one wrong move and they’re dead (whether at the hands of their opponents, a teammate, or Waller herself). If anyone’s laying down bets, the smart money is against them—all of them.
Written and directed by James Gunn, The Suicide Squad stars David Dastmalchian, John Cena, Jai Courtney, Joaquín Cosío, Nathan Fillion, Joel Kinnaman, Mayling Ng, Flula Borg, Sean Gunn, Juan Diego Botto, Storm Reid, Pete Davidson, Taika Waititi, Alice Braga, Steve Agee, Tinashe Kajese, Daniela Melchior, Peter Capaldi, Julio Ruiz, Jennifer Holland, Viola Davis, Idris Elba, Margot Robbie, and Michael Rooker.
The Suicide Squad is currently scheduled to hit theaters and HBO Max on August 6, 2021. Stay tuned for all the latest news on The Suicide Squad, Steve Agee, King Shark and be sure to subscribe to Stock Market Pioneer’s YouTube channel for more original video content.