"Big Daddy is my ode to Adam West who, for me, is the only Batman. I grew up watching Adam West and he still has yet to be topped, in my opinion," says Cage. "He had this odd rhythm to his delivery, and I just wanted to tip my hat to him a little bit, to actors like him and William Shatner, who I think really started a whole cultural movement."

Cage‘s West tribute may have come out of the blue during rehearsals ('I was pissing myself laughing when he did it,' giggles Johnson), but the nod to Batman and West was entirely apt, as Big Daddy‘s look is modeled on Batman, with his costume resembling in some ways the Caped Crusader‘s.

"Matthew wanted me to have a yellow belt," recalls Cage. "It looked so much like the original belt from the Batman TV show that I thought, well, why don't we just go the whole way and have Damon be channeling Adam West because that's his Jungian muse, to help him accomplish the things that he accomplishes."

Vaughn is keen to point out, though, that the costumes don‘t overlap as much as a first glance might suggest. "The helmet is very different from Batman‘s helmet," he says. "It reminded me of [Brian de Palma‘s] Phantom of the Paradise, actually.

"But the rest is stuff that can be bought on the internet, meaning riot gear. Most of his outfit is French riot gear. The shoulders, all the pads, that‘s what the French riot police wear, in a different color. If you‘re going to get beaten up on the terraces, that‘s what you want to be wearing!"

But, when the costumes are off, the key to the Damon/Mindy relationship is that they‘re truly devoted to each other even if the relationship is a tad more twisted than your normal father-daughter pairing.

"I would say that he‘s a man who genuinely loves his daughter but he‘s misguided," explains Cage. "He‘s been confused by anger and vengeance and has actually lost his mind thinking of ways to protect his daughter by putting her into violent situations.

"He feels that if she gets a dog, that might get her killed. But if he gets her a butterfly knife, that might actually save her life.

"But I wanted Damon to be the nicest father in the world," he continues. "So that it would be a counterpoint to the things that they were up to as Big Daddy and Hit Girl."

Kick Ass is out now.

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