Thomas O’Connor on Jared Leto’s “method” approach to the role of The Joker in Suicide Squad and his on-set behaviour…
Actors have always, and probably will always, be an eccentric bunch. For one, you’ve got the divas, prone to temper tantrums and ridiculous demands if they don’t get their way. Then you’ve got the eccentrics, like method actors who can get so deep into a role that they lose sight of their own identity (to hear them tell it at least). For the most part, this is all fine. If an actor wants to be a bratty child or get a little strange in the name of their art, so be it. They’re adults, and they can act the way they want to. Until those times when a line gets crossed. When, in the name of thespianism they do something categorically “not cool”.
Jared Leto sent used condoms, anal beads and “sticky” volumes of Playboy Magazine to his Suicide Squad co-stars, which was apparently essential for getting into character to play The Joker.
If that isn’t the absolute definition of “not cool”, I don’t know what is.
SEE ALSO: Jared Leto on putting his own stamp on the Joker in Suicide Squad
But let’s back up. Since shooting began on David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, stories have been reaching the press about Leto’s eccentric behavior on set. There was the time he sent a live rat to Margot Robbie, for example, or the time he delivered a dead pig to his co-stars. Weird, sure, but probably not the weirdest thing an actor has done. Probably.
But then, on a red carpet interview with E! Online, Leto and his co-stars started talking about just how dark things got. According to Leto, the gifts didn’t end at rats and pigs. Apparently, his “presents” to his castmates included used condoms (used by who, we can only speculate), anal beads, and according to co-star Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, a “sticky Playboy magazine”.
To hear Leto explain it “The Joker is somebody who doesn’t really respect things like personal space or boundaries.” So it seems that if you’re playing a character with no respect for boundaries or personal space, it’s okay not to have any yourself?
Leto’s co-stars seemed to have taken this in stride. Of Leto’s antics, Will Smith was heard to say “He really set the tone. He wasn’t playing with it. He was dead serious as an actor. He was going in and he was 100 percent going into this character.” Of the dead pig incident, Akinnuoye-Agbaje said “That was a good gift because it had the effect of unifying us as a group because then it became us against him. We sent the messenger back with the dead pig and our own personalized message. It got the ball rolling.”
So his co-stars seem, to one degree or another, cool with Leto behaving like a sex offender. But to be clear here, he’s still acting like a sex offender. This is behavior that would get you thrown in jail, issued a restraining order, or put under some heavy surveillance in ninety-nine percent of cases. And yet, when Jared Leto sends a fellow human being a used condom, it’s not being a creepy weird…..it’s acting?
Is this the world we live in now? Is this what the profession of acting has become? Nevermind that Leto’s actions are just the latest in a trend of “extreme performances” that see actors pushing themselves to extremes or behaving like lunatics, because that’s what brings attention to a performance these days.
Can we, the movie press, not agree on the basic fact that sending someone possibly semen-encrusted porn is the behavior of someone unwell, in desperate need of attention, or both? The fact that this behavior is being taken seemingly in stride by so much of the moviemaking press is frankly terrifying. This is behavior that should by all rights meet the definition of harassment, if it doesn’t already.
As journalists, it’s our job to report the facts, so here they are: on the set of Suicide Squad, Jared Leto by his own admission behaved in a deplorable manner. His actions were disgusting and wrong and inexcusable, and we should be talking about that. We should be talking about how all this came to be and what it says about the system we’ve created where this kind of behavior can be met with anything besides a very, very loud “EW”.
Thomas O’Connor
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https://youtu.be/b7Ozs5mj5ao?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng
Originally published April 14, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
