Adam Beach, who plays Slipknot, says the star-studded comic book epic is so dark that castmembers such as Will Smith and Jared Leto are given access to specialist life coach

The high-profile cast of pioneering supervillain movie Suicide Squad have been given access to an on-set therapist to help them cope with the “torment” of their grim roles, according to one of the film’s main players.

David Ayer’s film stars Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis and Cara Delevingne as an assortment of DC Comics baddies sent on an impossible black-ops mission in return for the commutation of their sentences. Adam Beach, who plays Slipknot, told E! Online the film was so dark that Ayer had provided access to therapy during cast members’ down time.

“David Ayer is about realism,” said Beach. “So if your character is tormented, he wants you to torment yourself. He wants the real thing.”

The actor revealed the therapist was more of a “life coach” than a traditional psychotherapist, adding: “Us actors explore very fine thin lines going to the dark side and he wants to make sure we finish a movie and don’t disappear somewhere and then don’t show up for work.”

Cara Delevingne: superhero movies are 'totally sexist' Read more

The dark tone of the project has clearly been embraced by the cast. It was recently revealed that Oscar-winner Leto sent a letter and video to fellow stars apologising for not joining them for early rehearsals. The actor, who plays the Joker in Suicide Squad, accompanied his missive with a live rat for Robbie (his on-screen partner as Harley Quinn), some bullets for Smith and a dead pig for the entire cast.

Leto will become the first actor since The Dark Knight’s late Heath Ledger to play the Joker on the big screen. Smith portrays hired assassin Deadshot, with Delevingne as Enchantress and Australian actor Jay Courtney as Boomerang. Kinnaman plays weapons expert Rick Flag and Oscar-nominee Davis is mission coordinator Amanda Waller. There will also a cameo appearance by the caped crusader himself, in the form of new Batman Ben Affleck.

Suicide Squad is part of studio Warner Bros’ slate of 10 movies based around the DC Comics universe which was announced in October last year. Delevingne echoed suggestions that Suicide Squad will adopt a darker tone than the average comic book movie in comments for a new Empire magazine interview.

“There are only three girls in [Suicide Squad] but in my opinion they have the best roles,” she said. “Generally though, superhero movies are totally sexist.

“Female superheroes are normally naked or in bikinis. No one would be able to fight like that. Wonder Woman, how the hell does she fight? She would be dead in a minute.”