If you thought Jared Letosending creepy, in-character gifts to his "Suicide Squad" castmates was dark, just wait until you hear about the on-set therapist that director David Ayer hired to help actors cope with their alter egos' evil deeds.

That's the latest scoop from Adam Beach, who plays Slipknot in the flick. In an interview with E! News, Beach said that Ayer has encouraged actors to be as method as possible while portraying their villainous characters (see Leto's antics above), and that includes taking a more personal, psychological approach.

"David Ayer is about realism," Bech explained to E!. "So if your character is tormented, he wants you to torment yourself. He wants the real thing."

That type of intense preparation for the production has the potential to lead to some seriously twisted thinking, Beach said, and that's why Ayer has hired someone to look out for his cast's mental health. E! reports:

"We kind of have like a therapist on board if you fall off the wagon and really are villainous," Beach said. "There's a friend of [Ayer's] that's very unique in making sure we have our ground."

He's not a psychotherapist, but more of a "life coach," Beach explained. "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."

That sounds like pretty heavy stuff, and the fact that Ayer is so worried about his actors' psychological well-being should either excite or alarm audiences, depending on how interested they are in seeing the flick. With a name like "Suicide Squad," the film was bound to be dark; it seems, however, that Ayer is going for pitch-black instead.

We'll get to see firsthand just how screwed up "Suicide" is soon; it's due to hit theaters on August 5, 2016.

[via: E! News]

Photo credit: David Ayer