Composer Steven Price Talks 'Suicide Squad,' His Joker Theme
Composer Steven Price spoke with Collider about his score for Suicide Squad, which marks a second collaboration between he and director David Ayer, following their WWII drama Fury.
"This project was first mentioned to me towards the end of Fury… he told me he was going on to “something big”, and asked if I’d be interested in coming along for the ride," Price said. "The Squad ultimately represents the first time they’ve really belonged anywhere, so I thought it was an interesting thing to play with musically."
Price explained that his work on the film started back in 2015, in October. "I have this tendency to start pretty early on things," he said, allowing him time to experiment before time-pressures inevitably kick in.
"On this one though, it proved pretty crucial to start writing early so I could respond to changes as they came up throughout the production process." He continued on to talk about his process, and his difficulty to ever mimic a certain style. "I genuinely enjoyed the characters, and found them fun to be around, and that lead me to try to capture some of that sense in the music."
On his Joker work, he was well aware of the "intimidating" work done in the past, following in the footsteps of those such as Hans Zimmer and Danny Elfman. "But Jared Leto’s portrayal, and his differing motivations from previous incarnations, meant that I could support his performance in a very different way. Really, this Joker’s music came out of his weird, dysfunctional romance with Harley.
"His music has dark, unsettling elements, like a chiming high plucked sound made by tuning a guitar so high that the string would snap as I played it, but it’s also quite theatrical and operatic in places. I’d love to see more Joker in the future to see where Jared would take the character. I found it a fascinating introduction and it was an honour to score him."
Source: Collider
