Cara Delevingne: ‘Suicide Squad’ Star Talks Audition, Enchantress’ Killing Powers

Cara Delevingne was excited to start filming her new movie, Suicide Squad. In fact, the British model was filled with so much “fury” from her role that she was ready to “kill people with her bare hands.”

Delevingne’s foray into acting wasn’t as easy as her start in the modeling world. She had to audition for the role of Enchantress in the highly-anticipated Suicide Squad. Delevingne was so sure that she would get the role since she played a similar character before.

Suicide Squad director, David Ayer, didn’t want to hand Cara the role. David asked Cara to perform the character of Martha from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, a role that she played in a school play.

Ayer made things more complicated. He wanted Delevingne to forget everything she learned about the character in grade school. Ayer had her read her lines over several times in a variety of ways, so that she was driven crazy enough to “beat people up.”

“I was like, ‘Honestly, if I go outside and punch people, you’ve got to come get me out of jail because I am so furious.’ He sparked a f***ing fury in me.”

Delevingne is apparently hyped up about her role. She loves how dangerous and violent her character is.

“It’s going to be freakin’ awesome. I kill people with my bare hands!”

Cara also told TIME that she used her modeling career to help pay for her acting lessons. She’s hoping to commit to acting full-time, as long as she gets cast in strong female characters.

“Everyone tried to typecast [me] as the dumb blond model or the girl who gets killed…I take what roles I do very seriously. I always want to portray a strong female. Acting roles for women are usually less strong and, like, bleeding hearts.”

Not every role has landed in Delevingne’s lap though. Before she hit the big screen with Paper Towns, Delevingne auditioned for the lead role in Tim Burton’s 2010 remake of Alice in Wonderland, which went to Mia Wasikowska. She recalls that that the experience was “the worst rejection I ever gotten.” Delevingne added: “I didn’t get over that for, like, three years.”

Cara decided to put her acting career on hold since she was still studying in school. After she graduated school, her modeling career began and then the roles that came to her became less appealing. Then again, Cara was also too busy with modeling to fully pursue an acting career. She took a break after all the stress from modeling overcame her, leading to a psoriasis outbreak.

The face of Chanel recently defended herself after her cover story in Vogue described her bisexuality as a phase. Delevingne is quite comfortable with her sexuality and who she is. She confidently told Us Weekly, “My sexuality is not a phase. I am who I am.”

Cara Delevingne stars in the DC Comics’ film alongside Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, and Viola Davis. Suicide Squad hits theaters August 5, 2016. Check out Delevingne’s full interview with TIME magazine for more info.

[Image: Juan Naharro Gimenez/Getty Images]