Sandwiched between two Oscar-winning performances as the Clown Prince of Crime sits Jared Leto’s interpretation of the iconic Batman villain The Joker, his role in 2016’s Suicide Squad coming in for some pretty heavy criticism from the moment we got our first look at his heavily-tattooed and ‘damaged’ design.
Suicide Squad has been back in the spotlight recently, with news that HBO Max is to release Zack Snyder’s Justice League prompting calls for WB to #ReleaseTheAyerCut, and David Ayer himself has been very active on Twitter as he reminiscences about the film, its reception, and his experiences on what proved to be a rather troubled production.
Earlier this week, Ayer stated that he felt Leto was “mistreated” with Suicide Squad, the enforced reshoots and re-edit meaning his performance “was ripped out of the movie”, and now the filmmaker has retweeted a fan defending Leto’s Joker from accusations that it wasn’t “comic book accurate”.
Amazing. Tracks exactly with how I built the looks – “Not comic book accurate” 🤣🤣🤣 I cant. 🤦♂️ https://t.co/6WAGSXpTzT
— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) June 4, 2020
There is of course more to a character than simply his appearance, but what did you make of Leto’s Joker overall? Would you be interested in seeing his Joker material that ended up on the cutting room floor as part of an ‘Ayer Cut’ of Suicide Squad, or have you already seen enough? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Suicide Squad sees David Ayer (Fury) directing a cast that includes Will Smith (Focus) as Deadshot, Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club) as The Joker, Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street) as Harley Quinn, Jai Courtney (Terminator Genisys) as Captain Boomerang, Joel Kinnaman (RoboCop) as Rick Flag, Viola Davis (The Help) as Amanda Waller, Cara Delevingne (Paper Towns) as Enchantress, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Thor: The Dark World) as Killer Croc, Jay Hernandez (Hostel) as El Diablo, Adam Beach (Flags of Our Fathers) as Slipknot, Jim Parrack (Fury) as Johnny Frost, Ben Affleck (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) as Batman, newcomer Karen Fukuhara as Katana, Common (Selma) as Monster T, Ike Barinholtz (The Mindy Project) as Captain Griggs and Scott Eastwood (The Longest Ride) as Lieutenant ‘GQ’ Edwards.