DCU Director Was Afraid For Jared Leto’s Safety After He Took Method Acting to Extreme Level For ‘Joker’ Role
Jared Leto has starred in numerous movies and TV shows in his career spanning more than three decades. He is prominently known for his usage of method acting to give the best performances. Prefontaine, released in 1997, was one of the first movies in which Leto used method acting and since then, he has not turned back as he has only gotten better at implementing it.
Jared Leto starred as Joker in the movie Suicide Squad. Although his portrayal of Joker was not very well-received, his use of method acting to get into the character garnered him a lot of attention. From sending bizarre gifts to his co-stars to not talking to people on the set, Leto gave his all to the character to the point that even director David Ayer was concerned about him.
David Ayer Was Concerned About Jared Leto
Suicide Squad gave audiences the chance to see Jared Leto‘s performance as the Gotham supervillain Joker. The idea was to bring forth a new interpretation of the character that had never been seen before. As usual, Leto took the entire process to another level by completely immersing himself in the character.
So much so, that David Ayer started worrying about the American Psycho actor at one point. He once told Rolling Stones that not only did he address Leto as Mr. J on the set but also gave him a henchman on set just like his character. He had told the henchman Jim Parrack that he was going to work for Mr. J and do whatever was asked of him. Ayer said:
“So poor Jim was running around Toronto almost on a scavenger hunt, would also go for these long walks and really sort of live it away from set, away from the studio, ”But I know he’d be walking around at night and I was kind of like, worried: ‘Where is he?’ He’s literally walking the Earth, you know, and kind of meditating on this character.”
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This proves Jared Leto’s dedication to his character and how hard he worked to bring Joker to life. So, naturally, he was disappointed that his screen time was reduced in the final cut of the film.
Jared Leto Shot A Lot of Scenes For Suicide Squad
Both Leto and Ayer have said that the cutting down of Joker’s scenes had happened due to the studio’s interference. David Ayer once wrote on X that what he made was a properly constructed movie that had been inspired by Christopher Nolan’s filmmaking. In fact, there were great scenes between Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn and Jared Leto’s Joker.
Jared Leto also said that the amount of footage that had been cut off from the movie was enough to make a full-length Joker feature film. He went on to joke that if he were to die someday, maybe the studio would actually release a film to honor his portrayal of Joker.
Source: Rolling Stones
