Jai Courtney on Making a Comeback in Cannes Serial Killer-Shark Thriller and if He Would Return to DC Universe: ‘I Have Hope'

Yahoo

18-05-2025

For the past four years, Jai Courtney has kept it relatively quiet.
Following his second stint as Captain Boomerang in James Gunn's 'The Suicide Squad' in 2021, the Aussie heartthrob ditched Los Angeles for upstate New York, became a father for the first time and took a break from wide-release films.
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'I was going through a few transitions in my personal life and needed a gear shift. So, we took a swing and just decided to go somewhere wildly different,' he says of the bucolic life that he and his partner, Saudi actress Dina Shihabi, embraced with their 2-year-old daughter. 'I haven't looked back. I'm kind of an impulsive person, and it just felt like a like a good excuse to turn over a new leaf and start a different chapter.'
Now, he's back with the lead role in 'Dangerous Animals,' a wild mashup of two of the most bankable subgenres: the serial killer and shark movie. (Independent Film Company, formerly IFC Films, is giving the film a wide release on July 23.) Adding to the hype, 'Dangerous Animals' offers an elevated performance from Courtney amid terrifying jump scares. (Cannes did accept the Sean Byrne-helmed film in the Directors' Fortnite sidebar, after all).
Sipping on an orange-apricot spritz at the Carlton Hotel on the eve of the film's Cannes debut, the actor seems at peace with his life choices and his comeback chances. With 'Dangerous Animals,' he gets to delve into the psyche of a lunatic who breaks into a celebratory dance after a kill. Courtney understands the public's fascination with serial killers.
'I'm right there with them. I'm addicted to true crime stuff,' he says. 'There's been debate around how much we idolize people who have committed atrocious acts. And I think, 'Yeah, maybe there is a balance in that somewhere.' But it's also entertainment, and fuck man, it's fun. You don't have to be on board with it morally to enjoy the spectacle, right?'
After landing his breakout role opposite Tom Cruise in 2012's 'Jack Reacher,' Courtney became the Next Big Thing from Down Under, joining a list that has included Mel Gibson, Russell Crowe and the late Heath Ledger. Working with Cruise offered a window into the perks of movie stardom.
'Tom took really good care of me. I was able to cop a ride to work on his helicopter one day, which was so out of this world for me. I'm walking down the hotel corridor, and he was like, 'Courtney, where are you going? Come with us.' Next minute, I'm in a helipad. We were a couple of hours from set, and Tom doesn't do traffic.'
That paved the way for playing more heroic types, like Bruce Willis' son in 'A Good Day to Die Hard,' the fifth chapter in the long-running action franchise. To Courtney, the 2013 film already feels like it hails from a different era.
'Bruce was still smashing through the films like a classic stud,' he remembers. 'That film happened at a time when they were letting actors do stuff that they just don't anymore. We were beating ourselves up. They killed 110 cars in this car chase. I've done a film since where you got to get in a car and pull out of a parking spot going really fast, and they don't let you do it. And I'm like, 'What happened?' Like I jumped out of a building in 'Die Hard.''
The Sydney native continued to scale the heights and nabbed one of the most coveted roles in town: Resistance soldier Kyle Reese in the 2015 'Terminator' franchise entry, 'Terminator: Genisys.' The $155 million-budgeted tentpole, which also starred his then-girlfriend Emilia Clarke, earned $441 million worldwide. Though the film was profitable during its theatrical run, plans for a trilogy were scrapped.
'When you're deep into a franchise, it's always tricky. I saw this with 'Die Hard' as well,' he explains. 'It's something that's so beloved, people want more of it, but it's really hard to give people what they think they want from it again, because what you're tapping into is the nostalgia of experiencing it for the first time. It's not impossible, but it's a tall order. So, I have no regrets around it. They were good, fun films, but I think it's hard to hit a home run. It's just the nature of any long running franchise.'
Some of his best on-set memories are literally tattooed on his skin. Courtney points to one on his inner arm that says 'SKWAD' that he shares with his fellow 2016 'Suicide Squad' cast and another on his opposite arm that fellow Aussie Margot Robbie made him get after he lost a sports bet with her.
'I've made so many dumb tattoo decisions since then. One of my mates scratched that into me last week,' he says of an amateurish scrawl near his sizable bicep. 'Once I discovered my legs were valuable real estate too, I just started filling them up. The inner thigh is incredibly painful, but there's something euphoric about it as well, like an endorphin release. There's sort of an addictive quality to getting tattooed, and then you have this trophy.'
The same could be said for the mindset of Tucker, the seafaring serial killer he portrays in 'Dangerous Animals,' or the gonzo criminal Boomerang, which he first tackled in David Ayer's 'Suicide Squad' in 2016. In fact, Courtney says there's a throughline between the two characters: They are both psychos.
'David told me like, 'I want you to find your inner shitbag,' and I was doing some weird stuff in prep. I remember taking mushrooms and burning myself with cigarettes,' he says. 'I was just getting into a weird space with it. I'm all for a bit of experimentation with some ancient plant medicine. Why not?'
Boomerang may have met a gruesome end in Gunn's version of 'Suicide Squad,' but the DC boss told Courtney that the door is potentially open for a return to the DC universe.
'I was like, 'Come on, man. Boomerang is cool,'' Courtney recalls of his conversation with Gunn after reading the script and seeing his character's fate. 'And James is like, 'You know these rules don't really apply. Just because he dies here doesn't mean it's gone forever, right?' And I was like, 'Hell yeah.' So I have hope. Somewhere in the back of my mind, there's a prayer that we'll see more of Boomerang one day.'
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