David Ayer Talks ‘The Beekeeper’ and Closing the Book on His ‘Suicide Squad’ Cut: “It’s Been Radio Silent”

From penning Training Day (2001) to helming the one-two punch of End of Watch (2012) and Fury (2014), David Ayer has had the film industry in the palm of his hand on a couple of different occasions. 

Following the success of the latter, he then punched his own ticket to the DCEU, opting to write and direct Suicide Squad as a supervillain take on The Dirty Dozen. The film would star the likes of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, Will Smith’s Deadshot and Jared Leto’s Joker, but despite one of the most celebrated trailers of all time at 2015’s San Diego Comic-Con, the subsequent poor reception to Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and the adulation for Tim Miller’s irreverent Deadpool (2016) caused Warners to panic and retool Squad on the fly.

What resulted was a bake-off between the studio’s cut and Ayer’s cut, and the cut that audiences finally saw in August 2016 attempted to be a hybrid of both. Ayer remained a good sport throughout this turn of events and promoted the film as if it was his own cut, but the critical rejection of the film is still taking its toll on him even though it amounted to a box office win of $747 million.

“I was pilloried, pilloried, in the media again and again over it … but I kept my mouth shut for years,” Ayer tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I learned that nature abhors a vacuum, and if you don’t tell your story, then somebody else will. It’s incredibly unjust, and I can’t point to a similar situation, ever. It’s mind blowing. It’s a scar, it’s a wound and it’s taken a lot out of me. It also took a lot of equity out of my career, unfairly.”

His Suicide Squad experience caused Ayer to be “on tilt,” and his follow-ups, Bright (2017) and The Tax Collector (2020), were also met with critical disapproval. However, in February 2020, a glimmer of hope emerged when Zack Snyder, after an unprecedented fan campaign, got the green light from WarnerMedia, Warner Bros. and HBO Max to release his cut of Justice League cut, a film that was famously reinvented after he exited during post-production. Fans would eventually double down on another hashtag campaign in favor of “The Ayer Cut.” But WarnerMedia didn’t share the same enthusiasm at the time.

When David Zaslav and Discovery eventually took control of Warners to form Warner Bros. Discovery, James Gunn and Peter Safran were hired to run DC Studios and reboot the DC universe with minimal carryover from the now-defunct DCEU. (Viola Davis, whom Ayer first cast as Amanda Waller in 2016’s Squad, will remain.) According to Ayer, he spoke to Gunn, who indicated that the Ayer cut could potentially be unearthed at a later date once the new DCU has some momentum. However, Ayer now believes that the studio has had second thoughts since then.

“I can take the hint. It’s been radio silent, and I’m done pushing a rock uphill,” Ayer admits. “There are great places and great partners out there to work with, and I just want to focus on being a great partner and making some good movies.”

Ayer’s latest step forward begins with this week’s release of his Jason Statham actioner, The Beekeeper, which is his ode to the action movies of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Unlike the majority of his work, The Beekeeper doesn’t take itself too seriously, as Statham plays Adam Clay, a beekeeper who avenges the nefarious treatment of his benevolent landlady (Phylicia Rashad). 

“It was actually a scary exercise because I normally do these dark, gritty dramas. So, to learn, as a filmmaker, that I could do it and that it could work, was a relief,” Ayer says.

Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Ayer also discusses how The Beekeeper taught him more about action than any of his previous films. He then looks back at his underrated Christian Bale-led crime drama, Harsh Times and the ways in which his own life factored into his directorial debut.

So I watched your interview with Jon Bernthal where you talk about proceedings like today, and I’m hoping I can defy the odds without giving you any “faraway” looks. 

(Laughs.) Okay. 

Well, during Sabotage, I remember you saying that you wanted to rebrand Arnold Schwarzenegger, and have him move and carry a gun in a new way — i.e., the correct way. 

(Laughs.) Yeah.

With Beekeeper, did you also aim to depict Jason Statham in a new light? 

Yeah, absolutely. He’s such a great actor. He’s an icon, and he has this unspoken contract with the audience and how they see him in the characters that he plays for them. So I wanted to take everything he is and surround him with an A-team of amazing performers, and then put him in a classic ‘80s and ‘90s-style action movie, which we really haven’t seen from him yet. It was actually a scary exercise because I normally do these dark, gritty dramas. So, to learn, as a filmmaker, that I could do it and that it could work, was a relief.

You’ve worked with a number of these big action star and movie-star types. Is there a one-size-fits-all approach to bringing out the best in them? Or do you adjust and tailor yourself to each one?

I think you’ve got to work with the person. You have to learn who they are and what they’re about. Everybody has a different working style. The camera also sees soul. The camera treats people differently. So it’s really getting in there and getting that trust, and it’s always a dance. You’re building trust, and you’re learning each other. And when that moment happens, when it’s like, “Okay, I got you and you got me. We’re good. Let’s do this,” then all of the pretenses drop and you just grind together. It’s really the best feeling.

As far as I can glean, Beekeeper is one of only a few times where you’ve directed a script that you either didn’t originate or overhaul significantly. Did you still do several of your own passes? 

Well, Kurt Wimmer delivered an amazing script, and it had everything you look for as a director. It had this plot that unfolds and gets crazier and crazier as it goes, with twists that actually got ahead of me. It had a mythology, which is really hard to do, and then it had some really good characters. Jason was also attached, so what’s not to love there? But in the process of filmmaking and physical production and [location scouting], you always adjust. It’s like tailoring a suit. You always have to adjust it for the situation.

The movie has fun with some bee-related puns, and considering that there are endless possibilities, did it take some restraint to not go too nuts with them?

Full disclosure: there were a lot more [bee puns] that we shot, and then in the edit, we found the right balance. So I definitely had a cut of the movie with probably way too many. 

As far as shooting action, long and wide is the renewed trend right now, and while you do a little bit of that, you’ll still cut for impact and energy. Would you say that you’ve updated your action style? 

It’s an update, but it’s a little bit of both: new school and old school. Jeremy Marinas, who did the choreography and shot second unit, is so gifted. He comes from the 87eleven school, and those guys have always been at the bleeding edge of action. So he taught me a lot. He just has this amazing instinct and understanding of human kinetics, and then Jason has an encyclopedic knowledge of every action movie ever shot anywhere on the planet. So I’ve shot a lot of action, but those guys schooled me. I learned more about action on this show than everything else I’ve done. The whole one-shot style, I’m not a good enough filmmaker to pull that stuff off. Every time I try, I always find things to pick apart, and then you end up stitching things together or redoing it in post. So I’m much more about having really good, solid, in-camera action, and if I need to cut away or get out of jail because I’m in a corner, I want that option.

You went back to DP Gabriel Beristain from early in your career on Street Kings and S.W.A.T. Was there any particular reason why this was a good time for a reunion? 

Gabby’s done a lot of action. He’s a big second unit DP, and he’s done a lot of work with Marvel and everything. So he really understands a lot of the physical processes and the logistics behind [action], and I like his light. I also like how he works, and he’s super collaborative. I can be pretty hands-on about stuff; I’ll grab a light and move it. So he trusts me and I trust him, but he’s also always been at the forefront of technology. Street Kings, for instance, was the first show to ever use digital lights. We used the Arri 35 camera system on [The Beekeeper], and I think we were the first feature to use it. So he’s always been about bringing new technology to set. 

Did you and Jeremy Irons trade DCEU war stories on the Beekeeper set?

(Laughs.) No, actually. We just took a break and focused on the acting. That guy is an absolute powerhouse. It’s wild. When you take someone like [Irons], who’s such a strong, classic actor, and then pair him with Josh Hutcherson, who, in this case, is a crypto bro on steroids via some substance abuse issues, watching them pass the ball back and forth was an absolute pleasure.

I remain impressed by the way you handled yourself during the Suicide Squad press tour. You did your job to sell the movie, and no one could tell that your heart was broken. Did the powers that be, at the time, ever give you some form of credit for your professionalism during release? 

Absolutely not, no. And look, it was a while ago. The studio has gone through several iterations of leadership, and nobody involved ever had any malice or ill will or anything. Everyone just wanted the same result, which was a great commercial movie. There was just a big delta on what that was. The thing that’s been difficult for me is that I made a great film. I made a great film. The people who have seen my cut have pretty much unanimously said that it’s one of the best comic book movies ever made. If someone who’s seen the cut wants to dispute that, then they can come talk to me. I was pilloried, pilloried, in the media again and again over it, and then pilloried again and again in the press launch of subsequent IPs, but I kept my mouth shut for years. I learned that nature abhors a vacuum, and if you don’t tell your story, then somebody else will. It’s incredibly unjust, and I can’t point to a similar situation, ever. It’s mind blowing. It’s a scar, it’s a wound and it’s taken a lot out of me. It also took a lot of equity out of my career, unfairly. 

A handful of months ago, you were optimistic about your cut being released once the new DCU has some wind at its back, but it sounds like you’ve given up on the idea. Is that the case? 

Yeah. Look, I can take the hint. It’s been radio silent, and I’m done pushing a rock uphill. I love directing, I love my job, I love working with actors. There are great places and great partners out there to work with, and I just want to focus on being a great partner and making some good movies. 

I’ve always been a fan of Harsh Times, and Christian Bale was as compelling as ever. He’s not method, but he’s method adjacent, and given the intensity of his performance as Jim Davis, was your first time in the chair a trial by fire in a lot of ways?

It really was. You go into it, and you don’t know what you don’t know. So working with Christian taught me what a real actor is, and we did an immense amount of prep. I grew up in L.A., and there may be some things in that movie that are draft uncomfortably close to my life. I was also able to take him around to the neighborhoods so he could meet the real people in real situations, and understand the tapestry of the time that everything came out of. So he just absorbed it. It was a really raw experience, but I learned that I love directing. That’s what I learned from it.

If you had directed your Training Day script, you probably would’ve done some things differently just on the basis of you having your own eye and instinct. Did Harsh Times give you the opportunity to carry out any of those ideas? [Writer’s Note: Both films center on two guys who cruise around L.A. and get into trouble.]

I don’t think so. It’s apples and oranges. Antoine [Fuqua] came into that as a very experienced director, with Mauro Fiore, the brilliant cinematographer. Again, I didn’t know what I didn’t know, and coming off Harsh Times, I was still green. I think it takes several movies under your belt before you can get confidence as a director, and even understand the job or your position or how to push back against notes or interference. So [Training Day] is a classic, and I’m so grateful that the movie even got made. It took years to get that script made. “Cops aren’t like that.” Yeah, right. (Laughs.) So I wouldn’t change anything about that experience, and watching Antoine on set really inspired me to direct.

The movie ends on a hopeful note as Mike (Freddy Rodriguez) and Sylvia (Eva Longoria) hug, but with Mike’s prints all over Jim’s car, do you think the cops picked him up shortly thereafter?

It’s a funny thing about solving murders in L.A., and maybe real life isn’t so CSI. (Laughs.) So I’ll just say that. And maybe someone has grown up and seen a different version of L.A. and a different version of policing, and seen folks get away with some crazy stuff or not. So I like leaving that possibility open. Does he get the chance to redeem himself? Because that’s what the whole movie is about. It’s about how we have to leave these aspects of self, and sometimes certain people, behind in order to grow.

The movie makes us wonder why Eva Longoria’s straight-and-narrow character is even with Mike, but then there’s a quick shot of her lower back that tells an entire story, and I always thought that was a great example of visual storytelling.

That’s it right there, and maybe that’s based on a real couple, you know what I mean? I know a lot of Sylvias. I know a lot of people who have worked really hard to achieve something and get out of the hood, and then they transform and become somebody else. It’s something that a lot of people go through. As you grow up and mature, you’re a part of the world that you came from, and even though it’s in your heart and soul, there’s also a distance now that’s painful.

You tend to rehire a lot of the same actors, as well as bit players and background artists. Some of them will even have the same name from movie to movie. Did you ever consider treating your L.A. stories as a shared or connected universe? 

In my mind, they’re taking place in the same world. You could turn the corner and see [Noel Gugliemi], who’s kind of been in everything. Starting out, there wasn’t a lot of diversity in Hollywood. No one was really going into Latino spaces to tell stories, and that’s just the world I grew up in. Those are the people I knew, and I’m loyal. So it was always this cool collaboration we were doing, and any opportunity to throw the homies some work, I’m all about that.

***
The Beekeeper opens Jan. 12th in theaters.