The more I hear about Suicide Squad production, the more I’m certain that Jared Leto sought out this role so he could go method to an extreme he’d never done until now. Not that he hasn’t tried. Jared has lost, gained, and lost weight again for roles. He’s played drug addicts, smart guys, not-so-smart dudes, and a real-life rock star. In every endeavor, he keeps building upon his previous level of commitment to a role. For the Joker, he never stepped out of character. He sent Margot Robbie a rat as a gift because that’s what the Joker would do for Harley Quinn. Margot said Jared scared the crap out of her because he never dropped his intensity level on set. It turns out Jared never dropped character at all.
Will Smith sat down for an interview with Beats 1 to talk about his upcoming music and reunion tour with his former partner, DJ Jazzy Jeff. The subject turned to Suicide Squad and Jared’s perpetual Joker act:
“I’ve never actually met Jared Leto. We worked together for six months and we’ve never exchanged a word outside of ‘Action!’ and ‘Cut!’ … I literally have not met him yet. So, the first time I see him will be ‘Hey, Jared. What’s up?’ He was all in on the Joker.”
[From Beats 1 on YouTube]
Well I don’t think Will is exaggerating at all. In all the behind-the-scenes photos, Jared is nowhere to be seen alongside his fellow cast members. He showed up on set, and he left after shooting was done. He didn’t even stick around for fun tattoo time with the rest of them. It must be so weird to go back to being “normal” after an intensive shoot. Maybe there is no normal for Jared Leto.
Cast read through today! #SuicideSquad pic.twitter.com/yajjcB5aEb
— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) April 9, 2015
Photos courtesy of Warner Bros., David Ayer on Twitter, Fame/Flynet & WENN
Alright. We get it. I still feel like his Joker is way too cartoony.
Robbie looks like she’s trying to get rid of hiccoughs in that picture.
Does anyone else get Kevin from Home Alone vibes while looking at this picture? The “damaged” tattoo across the forehead? We get it you guys!
I just came to say I would still do will smith, all day. That man is hot.
Oh and Jared. Well, let’s hope he can emerge from that darkness… this type of commitment must be very hard to overcome.
I second that Will Smith vote- for me though 🙂 I would want him to denounce CO$ until we were done. After I was smoking he could pray to Xenu all he wants….
Good grief he must be exhausting…
I can’t even imagine! What will happen to JL when the film is over?
He’s fine. It looks like he’s working with his band at the moment.
“Try acting, dear boy…it’s much easier.”
Soooo much hype this can’t be anything but a let down. They would have all been better served to stay quiet about it and let the audience be surprised by the character.
Who made that quote?
Sir Lawrence Olivier – to Dustin Hoffman during the filming of the Marathon Man..
I just loved the headliner quote for this. I can’t even take him seriously.
Right? I guess I’m supposed to be impressed….
Leto is so something alright. Although I’m not sure “method” is the word I would use.
And that pic of Margot Robbie? Dang, girl. You’re maybe a size 2. It’s okay to breathe out.
Meh. McConaughey and Garner said the same thing for The Dallas Buyer’s Club movie. That they only met Jared after they were finished doing the movie because he was in full Rayon mode all of the time. I don’t see a problem with that. If being in character all of the time means he’s going to give a great performance that will make people want to see the movie, I’m sure his cast members appreciate that. Besides, as long as he isn’t being like LaBeouf and using his method acting as an excuse to terrorize his cast mates ( none of Leto’s cast mates were bothered by the rat) all in the name of art, then I don’t see what the big deal is. But I guess only Bale and DDL are allowed to be method without ridicule.
Personally I think everyone who does that is mentally insane, Bale and Day Lewis included. I don’ t care if they don’ t bother their co-stars with their antics.
And I don’ t even see the results, to be honest. Method actors are cold. Everytime I watch a movie with them I am unimpressed because it seems like a one man show with everyone else obliterated, and it rubs me the wrong way enough to not enjoy the movie and the performance.
Of course it’ s a question of tastes, but I can assure you that there are people who don’ t like Bale and Lewis and are more than happy to ridicule them!
I know someone who worked on set with Day Lewis. He was in character but he wasn’t going around scaring people. He was very nice apparently he just kept his accent for the character and so forth ( the character he played ,in the movie my friend worked on, was not particularly nice). What jared does, the whole he was scary and really intense all the time sounds weird. From what I heard that is not how Day Lewis works.
Totally agree.
Seriously? Bale and Day Lewis are two of the best actors in the business and Jared Leto was amazing in Buyers Club. I would said that method has worked for all of them.
As I said, it’ s a question of tastes.
The movies I have seen with Bale (The Prestige, Empire Of The Sun, The Machinist, the Batman movies, Equilibrium, American Psycho and Reign Of Fire) and Day Lewis (The Last of the Mohicans, The Crucible, Gangs of New York and Lincoln) have all bored me to death, and their acting was technical and cold. I literally felt nothing for their characters, and their on-screen interactions with the other actors’ s characters was cringe-worthy. And selfish.
As for Jared Leto, I haven’ t seen the movie you are talking about, but I have seen other things with him (Urban Legend, Fight Club, Girl, Interrupted, American Psycho, Requiem For A Dream, Panic Room, Alexander and Mr. Nobody) and he was passable at best. If he were such an awesome actor he would deliver amazing performances in all or at least the majority of his movies. I’ ll be honest and say that I would probably not be impressed by his acting in the movie you mentioned anyway, because it was such an oscar baity role that I would think all the praise was because of a carefully constructed set of tropes. Whatever the case, ONE movie doesn’ t make him a great actor, it makes him a one trick pony, or, just to be generous, someone who can choose awesomely written characters to play.
I think people praise these actors because they have a different take on acting that is, I’ ll admit, fascinating in a very morbid way, and they mistake the insanity they go through with actual talent. But again, it’ s just a question of opinions.
For me, DDL is in a class all his own….In every movie of his I watch, I can’t take my eyes off him…I truly think he is the best actor living today! His performances in There Will Be Blood, The Crucible, The Last of the Mohicans, etc. are without peer, for me…Leto is no DDL!
I think Day Lewis should tone it down a bit. Too much scenery chewing in most of his films. Sacrilege I know, like not worshipping at the shrine of Anthony Hopkins, another sacred thesp…
Bale and DDL are method too, but don’t see to go on and on about it like Leto and his co-stars are doing. I also think they just keep to themselves on set about it, rather than forcing their co-workers to suffer through it too.
Never met the real Leto? Lucky Will Smith. My next door neighbour is running for town council and she makes the same face as the blond lady with Will Smith has here in all her campaign photos.
Why is Will lucky for not meeting the real Leto? Have you met him? Was he rude to you? If so, do share.
Jinni
I’ve met Jared Leto twice. Once professionally and once socially.
Professionally he and his bad 30STM were part of the Bomb Festival and I was a part of the entertainment crew assigned to his band.
2nd time some friends won a band contest and got to open for his same band. (Band was called Waking Elliot, but have now disband) I was backstage and he was a nightmare.
He refused autographs and when a girl reached out a photo of his Soap Opera days hoping for him to sign it he grabbed it. Called people who watched it stupid and torn the photo. During his act he tossed a microphone into the crowd and everyone was a bit shocked he didn’t care if it hurt someone. Why? Because he thought it was broken. So, instead of handing it to the stage crew he tossed it. Overall he was just complaining and speaking in philosophical nonsense like he was deep, but it didn’t apply to the topics.
And to during the Bomb Festival he acted like everyone was beneath him. Including his band mates.
I was excited to meet him. As time goes on more stories about him come out. And when it broke he was close with Creepy Uncle Terry I didn’t blink. It was fitting.
Feel free to fact check some of this with details i’ve given. My account is 1st hand. And both times he was awful and everyone around him was equally fed up, feeding his ego, or rolling their eyes because it was a job.
I follow Jared on snapchat. He’s doing stuff with 30 seconds to Mars right now, I guess they have a new album coming out? I still love Jordan Catalono….
30 Seconds to Mars is another project of Jared Leto the hard-worker, he sings, makes music, manages the band, initiates new ways to make money off of it, directs its videos – a one-man show.
That band has built a base of fans during many years of long and exhausting tours but I still can’t say they hit it big.
I am sorry because he is such a hard-worker but there is something about him that does not sit well with the arts. He is not genuine enough in his songs to produce a huge hit.
30 Seconds to Mars is an awful, awful band. Of all the emo crap from the 00’s, they are among the very worst.
I think Leto is a very talented actor but his music leaves much to be desired.
He’s exhausting for sure. I’m pissed about the rat.
Someone call me a doctor; I just rolled my eyes so hard that I sprained something.
I am not sure that being all method like this is a compliment and proof of a major acting talent. Maybe it is proof of ambition and commitment to get the job done to the best of your abilities, other than that an actor should be able to jump in and out of character quite easily.
The fact that he seeks roles that physically transform him is again not so much proof of amazing acting, just amazing commitment. He is definitely a very hard worker but as a co-star I would be a little put off by his behavior. If you want to go method, go ahead, just don’t send me any rats!
He was announced for Girl on the train – does anybody know if that character needs any kind of transformation?
I can’t, and don’t want to, imagine what it must be like to think like the Joker for 6 months. He’s without a doubt the most disturbing character in any comic book, so I hope it doesn’t hit Leto too hard.
The point is that you don’ t have to think like the Joker if you play him in a movie. Acting requires you to pretend to be him, on a set where everything is fake, and for as long as the take needs. Then you take your make up off, you change your clothes, and you are the person you have always been: thinking like him for six months straight is not required, it’ s not mandatory, and it’ s what only method actors do, and willingly.
Actors don’ t do that: they have no idea what a psychotic serial killer would think and do in a certain situation and to understand it they ask questions instead of acting like 2 years old children do and pretend they ARE psychotic serial killers for as long as they need/want to!
They learn their lines, they put on make-up, and they even might have fun because as terrible as the character is, they know everything is fake and they might enjoy it. Because they are stable enough to not mix reality and fiction up!
I’ m sorry, but I have a very hard time feeling any sympathy over actors who decide to do this and then flip off. If Leto goes insane because of the Joker, it’ s his own damn fault!
Agree with JWQ
If JL was really 100% method wouldn’t we starrt seeing some crime streak forming? Or seeing him in public being that character because he’s “so method”?
We have seen him being himself and going about his life during the timeline of filming.
I don’t get method acting tbh. The only people it seems to make a difference for are the people actually working with them on set. Shia LeBouf went crazy method in Fury, just to deliver the 4th best performance in the film (and it’s not like the rest of the cast was delivering a De Niro – Brando level of performance, either).
Ultimately, if the actor’s good, he’ll pull it off, method or not. Obviously Daniel Day Lewis and Jared Leto are doing something better than Shia.
Method actors must be exhausting, I think the difference between great actors and regular ones is that they can turn it on or off. I adore Daniel Day Lewis but don’t like the method.
The joker doesn’t really require method it’s not really like your trying to imitate someone.
Why is there always a Batman in some sort of production or discussions? Is there nothing else? Are we that out of ideas?
I think TV right now is way better than movies, maybe they need some TV writers and creators to work in movies.
I think he’s got the acting thing down, for sure. But I actually prefer the actors who can do intense, crazy emotional or psychotic scenes and turn it right off once the director yells cut. That is so impressive to me. I will not knock anyone’s approach to their craft because I don’t know what it takes to do what they do, but for me, I just think there is something so special about a performer who give it their all, practices, and does what they need to do and then go back to real life and be themselves without carrying it with them. I know Heath Ledger had a hard time because of the joker and I’m sure it’s difficult playing such a dark character.
Tacos
That’s a trait I respect in actors too. Turn it on and off.
And Heath Ledger went so deep to craft his character for the best reason imo. He wasn’t just the character written for him saying lines off the script and moving as he’s told. Much of his acting in that movie was on the spot.
Like in the scene where the Joker is behind bars and he starts clapping drawing the rooms attention from Gordon getting a promotion. The whole room looked at him and that act made the Joker real. Now if Leto is doing this for that reason i’d be shocked because it seems he’s doing it for attention and praise. The actors that do this right aren’t often seen bragging about how method they are.
If that man tried any harder he’d give himself a hernia.