Jared Leto: ‘I thought about dragging up for the Oscars, going as Rayon’

leto2

I’m not sure what we’re supposed to think about this cover. The pink rose makes him look like a wannabe contestant on The Bachelor. Jared Leto covers the new issue of the Evening Standard Deluxe (I guess their weekend magazine?). The photos are by Terry Richardson, so of course I went on Terry’s Diary and grabbed a few more photos. Terry and Jared are tight. Does that affect your opinion of Jared? Ugh.

Anyway, my opinion of Jared changed quite a bit during his Oscar campaign. I had always considered Jared to be something of a poseur, a try-hard “rocker” and wannabe artiste. But then he got the best reviews of his life for Dallas Buyers Club and his Oscar campaign was, hands-down, one of the best I’ve ever seen. He wanted it, but not too much. He was respectful of the work, respectful of the subject matter and generous to fans and journalists alike. He played it perfectly, and he went into the Oscars as one of the most clear-cut favorites. So what’s on Jared’s mind post-Oscars? Eh. Well, he’s not trying to be so politically correct anymore. Some highlights from Deluxe:

He almost ‘dressed up’ as Rayon for the Oscars: “I thought about dragging up for the Oscars, going as Rayon, because I knew that she would have loved to be there. It’s so much work for girls to get ready. I was brought up by my mum, so I always had an appreciation of women. But now I have more respect for the process. It’s a lot, what women have to do to themselves. But in the end, when you put that final dash of lipstick on and your look all comes together, it really is a glorious reward.”

He doesn’t care about awards, but… “But I would never say, ‘I don’t give a s–t about the Oscars,’ because it’s not the whole truth. It’s not about the shiny, naked golden man, or the pat on the back, it’s about being able to stand on a world stage for two minutes in front of a billion people and say something that is meaningful, important to you…I could have really taken the piss. But I didn’t want to wing it with this one. I prepared. I wanted to keep it classy.”

The Oscar after-parties: “It was pretty f–king fantastic to see all those Hollywood dreamers letting loose with such abandon. I looked over and my mother was dancing with Madonna.”

But he respects trans people: “I became a detective, I met with transgendered people, I asked questions: ‘What was it like to tell your parents?’ ‘What’s it like to be judged?’ You don’t have to desire the surgery to have your penis cut off, but you do have to understand it. We all have issues with our identity, or know what it’s like not to belong.”

[From Us Weekly & E! News]

I’m kind of meh on his “what if I dressed up as Rayon for the Oscars” story. It just feels disrespectful to the trans community, some of whom already took issue with the idea of a heterosexual man playing a trans woman. That being said, I think he’s right about wanting to “keep it classy” at the Oscars – I like him more for playing the game and taking it seriously and wanting to have a classy moment on the stage. That shows maturity.

JL3

JL1

Photos courtesy of Jared’s Instagram, Terry’s Diary, the Evening Standard.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

62 Responses to “Jared Leto: ‘I thought about dragging up for the Oscars, going as Rayon’”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. T.fanty says:

    He wants it just as much as anyone else. He’s trying to play the game and be a provocateur, which can’t be done. Douche.

    • Dani2 says:

      +1

    • GoodNamesAllTaken says:

      Spot on. I can’t stand him. And he’s friends with TR. Ugh. I’m surprised one room can contain all the douchery of those two together.

      • Hiddles forever says:

        That was a big room, probably Versailles-size kind of room….

        Two disgusting douches. Period.

        P.s. And the fact he wants to be kind of a spokesperson for the trans community and he doesn’t even understand anything about what that means speaks volumes about his self-entitled dumbness.

    • Spugzbunny says:

      I completely agree with you! I also believe he is a bit of a sleaze himself and that’s one of the reasons why him and creepy Uncle T get on so well. It’s such a shame because the man is simply gorgeous!

    • Liv says:

      OMG, he’s so sweet….not.

    • Sixer says:

      I can’t knock his absolute prowess at playing the Oscar game. I can’t knock his award-worthy performance either.

      But oh dear to his clearly thinking he can segue back to the old game in ten seconds flat and we’ll all buy it like the good little fan drones that we are.

      And seriously: is the body in that pic supposed to make me come hither? Surely not.

      • Godwina says:

        Surely YES, say some. I have been going about my whole life not giving a fig about Jared Leto, but then that photo happened…

        Criminey.

      • Lindy79 says:

        Here here. He played the game and won (I agree on his performance too, he was great) but he needs to sit down and own it.

        I’m glad he didn’t show up as Rayon. It would have been beyond offensive. What the feck does women getting ready have to do with living as a transgender person, it just sounds so superficial and … dumb. I thought he copped on after his waxing joke at the Globes.

        Knob!

      • Sixer says:

        Jockey!

      • Lindy79 says:

        Haha!!

      • Sixer says:

        I don’t suppose you know the word association football/psychoanalysister and brother Monty Python sketch? It’s a favourite at Sixer Towers. Never miss an opportunity, however flaky!

      • Lindy79 says:

        Yep I know it, not verbatim unfortunately.
        I just let Cleese’s voice send me to my happy place

    • Liberty says:

      I agree. Pew pew pew.

      Also I feel like he took a Russell Brand pill. But, I like Russell.

      • Happyhat says:

        Ditto! I like Russell, he’s matter-of-fact about who he is, and I imagine I can have a decent conversation with Brand.

        Jared – again, cudos on the performance. But meh for the person!

  2. Godwina says:

    The Richardson tie is a major downer, but I will be dreaming about that perfect torso all day… HOLY.

  3. Mark says:

    Anyway Trey Parker and Matt Stone already did it

    • Amelia says:

      And got blacklisted for their effort.
      The Oscars will always be a duller place without them.

  4. littlestar says:

    It looks like he went to the Kim Kardashian School of How to Pose With Duck Lips and Take Selfies.

  5. Greyson says:

    “You don’t have to desire the surgery to have your penis cut off, but you do have to understand it.”

    That quote is cringeworthy, and likely why he has so many critics from the trans community! He quizzed them so he thinks he understands them, but he lacks a basic understanding of genital reassignment surgery (you know, which is pretty MAJOR to a lot of trans women!).. They don’t cut it off, it’s used to built their new equipment. If they got rid of it completely, they would be getting rid of important nerve endings and the ability to feel pleasure in that area.

    He gave a great performance, but at the end of the day he’s an actor. Not an advocate for trans folk. When he says uninformed and/or borderline offensive stuff like that it’s easy to see why the community would prefer to speak for themselves!

    • Lindy79 says:

      He’s shown a few times with throwaway comments like that, that he either doesn’t truly understand what being transgender is about or that he thinks saying things like this are funny. I’m inclined to think its the latter, which makes him a total knob, either way it’s offensive.

    • Dani2 says:

      Yeah, I definitely get the vibe that he sees himself as a newly appointed voice for the trans community. He should have several seats, he’s a douche and he doesn’t seem to know what he’s talking about.

    • Godwina says:

      +1 everything.

    • Milena says:

      EXACTLY. That quote jumped out at me right away for all the wrong reasons.

      Being trans isn’t necessary about genitalia– it’s such a huge misconception that genital reassignment surgery is central to being trans, when it’s really just… a part of someone’s trans identity. But people seem to be fixated on it, and I think that the interview Laverne Cox did with Katie Couric is a great (but unsettling) example. At one point in the conversation Katie actually went, “But what about your private parts?” or something like that, and Laverne very politely responded that she didn’t want to talk about it, refocusing the conversation on trans rights.

      Would you ask a straight person about what’s between their legs? Being trans is more than your anatomy, it’s a state of mind, and an innate feeling about the gender you were born to possess. So yeah, I see how people could get hung up on reassignment surgery and all of that when trying to understand what it means to be trans, but it’s just ONE aspect of gender identity. Really!

      But to bring it back to Jared… yeah, that quote does no one any favors. He’s not an advocate, which is disappointing if not exactly surprising.

    • Okie says:

      THANK YOU. The mere idea that he would refer to it as “dragging up” indicates he is ignorant about the trans community. I thought Rayon was a wasted opportunity in the film — Leto had some sparks of life, but ultimately there was nothing to the character. The fact that critics couldn’t decipher if she was a “drag queen,” “transvestite,” or “transgendered woman” (there was no consensus in reviews or Oscar coverage, and all terms were used, sometimes interchangeably) was a problem. Then Leto gives these interviews where he tries to sound deep/interested/invested/compassionate, and comes across as none of the above.

      • Lucrezia says:

        I’m not sure I fully agree. I get where you’re coming from, but it’s not like Rayon is/was a real person. The character was made up for the movie. Other characters are portrayals of specific people, but Rayon is not. So I have no problem with a male is playing her or that it wasn’t clear whether she was transvestite, transgender, or a drag queen. To me, that lack of clarity just means she can be read however you’d like – which I’d put down as a slight plus. (If this was a failed representation of a specific transwoman, I’d have a completely different opinion.)

  6. Greata says:

    …and so the real creature emerges…

  7. gg says:

    He thinks far too much of himself, which I find unattractive. I will experience schadenfreude when he loses his precious Jesus hair. I wonder if Terry does disgusting things to HIM to get photos. Bet not.

    But if he does, I so don’t want to know.

  8. Hiddles forever says:

    He is so disgusting for the fact he is friend with that sexual predator and keeps working with him.

    Leto, just disappear please.

  9. serena says:

    I could take him more seriously if he just cut his damn hair.

  10. Skyblue says:

    My question is…why do so many american celebrities refer to their mom as mum?Serious affectation. I don’t know anyone who says mum unless they’re referring to the flower.

  11. Elise says:

    Does he not realize how offensive and disrespectful he sounds? Good God, if he showed up dressed as Rayon to receive his award, that would’ve been the beginning of the end of his acting career. Not to mention all the backlash he’ll receive from the transgender community and LGBT groups. What a douche!

  12. Jaded says:

    Everything about him creeps me out and did before his exploits with TR came out. Now that he’s won an Oscar the girls are going to be lined up outside Terry’s studio to get a piece of him. And have it immortalized in his photos. Yuck. He’s just another douchey actor/musician, it’s not like he won a prize for curing AIDS/HIV because in his perverted world that’s always one misstep away.

  13. Desert Ross says:

    He deserved his Oscar the most of all the 4 nominees. I take him anytime over Pedo Pusher Blanchett.

  14. Side-Eye says:

    This may seem ramdom but I refuse to see how anyone finds this guy so secy when he doesn’t have any lips.

  15. FingerBinger says:

    This guy is a douche and he’s always been a douche. During the awards season just about everyone on this site was in love with the guy and talked about how great he was. He really is a good actor he had you all fooled.

    • Side-Eye says:

      Personally I always found the guy fake and tacky but I didn’t want to harp on about since I didn’t want my bitterness over him beating Fassbender to cloud my judgement.

    • don't kill me i'm french says:

      He’s a douche and a poseur,he plays the game to win his Oscar and he deserved to win

  16. M says:

    Oh no, he’s still giving interviews! Go away!

  17. Jaderu says:

    Oh Jared.
    He’s still my shame screw. I WOULD REGRET NOTHING!!!
    I just need to cover his mouth with duct tape so he won’t say anything douchy.

  18. Seán says:

    I might be mistaken but I thought Rayon was a fictional creation for the film. Ron Woodroof (McConaughey’s character) was real but Rayon was created as a foil for the film version of Woodroof as well as being a window into transgender/larger LGBT community.

    Leto gave a great performance but his comments about wanting to dress up as Rayon because “she would have loved it” is pandering and silly. She’s not a real person and his attempts at trying to make it poignant so he looks oh so accepting, liberal and enlightened ring false.

  19. cerebralmind says:

    He should have done it. That would have been very entertaining.

  20. Hannah says:

    His comments about transgender people cutting their penis off sounds incredibly dumb.
    His superficial comments about Ukraine and Venezuela at a glitzy Hollywood award show came across as superficial and misplaced.
    Sure he is pretty, but he comes across as a man who isn’t very bright, but fancies himself as some kind of intellectual and artist. He seems very concerned with being seen as cool and edgy which isn’t very attractive if you consider that the man is 42 years old.

  21. Pandy says:

    Am I the only person who didn’t really find anything offensive about his interview? I thought he was being respectful to transgendered folks. And I think he was invested in his (fictitious) character and of course, grateful “she” was his vehicle to an Oscar. And the character would have enjoyed the ceremony, he’s right.

    • Ag-UK says:

      I didn’t either but I never really followed him before and have no back story on him nor do I want one but a lot have very strong opinions about him

    • name du jour says:

      Nope, you’re not. I don’t get why people get so angry at someone who is clearly TRYING to be on their side, just because that person isn’t using the exact right words and phrases or isn’t being on their side in the specific manner they have requested.

  22. Alexa says:

    I am puzzled by the fact that Jared Leto never gave me the hots until he was playing Rayon. In other words, I only have the hots for him when he’s playing Rayon. And I’m a pretty conventional heterosexual middle-aged female. Anyone have any thoughts or feel anything similarly unusual?

    • d b says:

      That’s interesting. Maybe because he’s more emotionally accesisible, in touch with his feminine side, so to speak?

  23. cerebralmind says:

    ^No Alexa. I think you might be on your own with that one. Maybe you were “attracted” to Rayon’s qualities in the film?

  24. Leah says:

    Him and Terry are so gross. Also Leto has no lip, i can’t with a man with no lip.

  25. Ruffian9 says:

    I still maintain that he’s kind of a douche; But I adored Rayon. He broke my heart in DBC.

  26. lily says:

    @Alexa Have you seen any old 30STM interviews? There is a lot of the old Jared in Rayon he is very flirtatious, sexy and fun. Recent interviews are very businesslike and contrived imo.

  27. Damaris says:

    “Appreciation for women …”? You don’t say, Jared? Those groupie tales tell otherwise.

  28. eddie says:

    The only thing he can appreciate in a woman are her orifices.

  29. Steff says:

    Some juicy gossip about Jared,
    HEre he says he’s officially single. ( duh!? ) ( australian radio interview )
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9IWlgYh–c