Director David Ayer recently opened up about his experience making 2016’s Suicide Squad, which he says turned out very different from the “dark, soulful movie” he set out to make.

The director spoke candidly during a recent appearance on Real Ones with Jon Bernthal podcast.

“Hollywood, I tell people, is like watching someone you love get fucked by someone you hate,” Ayer told Jon Bernthal. “The big one is Suicide Squad. That shit broke me. That handed me my ass.”

Ayer explained that he took the project on after completing Fury, the 2014 war drama starring Brad Pitt and Shia LaBeouf. “I had the town in my hand, could’ve done anything, and I did do anything. And [I] go on this journey with [Suicide Squad],” he recalled. “And the same thing — authentic, truthful, let’s do all the rehearsal, let’s really get in each other’s souls. Let’s create this amazing, collaborative thing, right?”

But he says the film took on a different tone after Deadpool and Batman v Superman came out.

“And then Deadpool opened… and they never tested Batman v Superman so they were expecting a different result, and then they got hammered by all the critics. Then it’s like, ‘Okay, we’re going to turn David Ayer’s dark, soulful movie into a fucking comedy now.’”

Ayer has been outspoken about his feelings regarding the Suicide Squad cut that critics panned when it hit theaters in 2016. The director recently said that DC boss James Gunn promised his unseen version of the film “would have its time to be shared.”

“All I know is my unseen film plays much better than the studio release. The interest in my cut being show seems real and organic,” he recently tweeted. “[Gunn] absolutely deserves to launch to launch his DC universe without more drama about old projects.”

In 2021, Ayer said he created an “amazing” director’s cut, per Variety, featuring “a fully mature edit” and a “brilliant score, with not a single radio song in the whole thing.”

“It has traditional character arcs, amazing performances, a solid third act resolution. A handful of people have seen it. If someone says they have seen it, they haven’t,” Ayer said.

When HBO Max released Zack Snyder’s “Snyder cut” of Justice League, Ayer asked his fans to push for the release of his Suicide Squad cut, a move which even Will Smith supported.

“Let me tell you, there’s a whole lot that stayed on the floor for ‘Suicide Squad,” Smith told Variety. “I’m into it. I love that world. I love what was created in both versions. I absolutely would love to [see it].”

Suicide Squad is now streaming on Max.