Jared Leto is making the rounds to promote The Little Things, a crime drama that will stream on HBO Max and which co-stars Denzel Washington. Part of his press tour has involved discussing Leto’s shock at emerging from a silent desert retreat to realize that a pandemic was happening, and that’s something that’s obviously still on his mind and will be for quite awhile. For Variety’s Actors on Actors series, though, Leto sat down with Denzel’s son, John David Washington (who’s co-starring with Zendaya in Malcolm & Marie), and Leto revealed what he likes (and mostly doesn’t like) about filmmaking.
Leto will appear later this year in Sony’s Morbius, a Spider-Man spinoff that will target the same moviegoers that made 2018’s Venom such a massive hit, but Leto — who portrayed a much maligned version of The Joker in David Ayer’s 2016 supervillain gathering, The Suicide Squad — revealed that he doesn’t sweat these roles too much. In fact, he doesn’t even rehearse, and he’s not exactly gung-ho on the camera rolling. He prefers the research-prep and finishing the work. From Variety:
– “I haven’t rehearsed in a movie in 10 years. I don’t have a rule against it, but usually I’m ready to go.”
– “Shooting the movie is the least enjoyable part for me. The two best parts of making movies is getting the job and finishing the job. I like the character build, the discovery. I actually like the time that I spend investigating. I think I just put too much pressure on myself.”
You almost have to respect how successful Leto’s been at scoring roles without enjoying the camera rolling, right? Mostly, this has paid off for him, especially while winning an Oscar for his role in Dallas Buyers Club. He did reveal, though, that he hasn’t watched that film (not even a scene or a play back while making the movie). “I had a lot less anxiety when I didn’t do it,” he explains. He also revealed that he’s generally stressed by making movies, but he’s been attempting “to practice not being so attached to the outcome of things and really just doing the best I can.” Hopefully, his next silent meditation retreat will be a lot more stress-relieving than his last one turned out to be.
Leto will next be reprising The Joker in Zack Snyder’s Justice League director’s cut, which will arrive on HBO Max in March.
(Via Variety)