Jared Leto May Be Done With Acting For A Long Time
Jared Leto is earning Oscar buzz for his role as a transgender woman in Dallas Buyers Club, but it could be the last time he’s on screen for quite a while.
Leto has been spending more time focusing on his music, touring and recording with his band Thirty Seconds to Mars, and his acting roles have been fewer and farther between. But when Jared was given the script for Dallas Buyers Club, he said he fell in love with the part.
“I didn’t have any plans to make another film,” he told Indiewire. “We were touring the world with 30 Seconds to Mars, playing in front of twenty, thirty, sometimes a hundred thousand people a night, and it was incredible. We were having the tour of a lifetime, and I got this script. I hadn’t read a script in a couple of years, but I read it and I fell in love. I thought, what an incredible opportunity.”
Jared Leto called the part the “role of a lifetime,” and so far critics seem to agree. He recently won best supporting actor from the Black Film Critics Circle, and is predicted to win more awards for the role.
The role isn’t without controversy. Some have criticized movie studios for offering the role to a cisgender man when transgender actors are starting to gain more visibility in the movie industry.
Jared Leto said he is happy that the movie industry isn’t forcing people only into roles that fit their sexual identity.
“I think it’s wonderful for actors to be able to play roles that are outside of themselves,” Leto told HuffPost Live. “That being said, you wouldn’t want to stick a transgender person with only transgender roles. So it goes both ways. That’s what makes art and acting really exciting is you get a chance to learn about other people and stretch and push yourself.”
But after The Dallas Buyers’ Club, Jared may be taking a break from acting again.
“If something as seductive came along, I would jump at the chance to have that opportunity,” he said. “But movies like this don’t come along that often. So we’ll see.”
Not that long breaks are anything new for Jared Leto. Before his part in The Dallas Buyers’ Club, it has been six years since he appeared in a movie.
