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Jared Leto Takes ‘Suicide Squad’ Seriously: Cast Reveals Strange Gifts And His Method Style

By Regina Avalos
Published on: 01:29 PST, Jun 28, 2015

Jared Leto sent some strange gifts to his co-stars from Suicide Squad when the film began production earlier this summer. He wanted to let his co-stars know that he was ready to bring his character, evil villain The Joker, to life. According to ScienceFiction.com, his co-stars have revealed the gifts they received from Leto when he was still overseas on tour with his band Thirty Seconds to Mars.

After initial preparation for the film began and Leto cut and dyed his hair to blonde, he still had tour dates to do. However, he was preparing himself for his role the entire time.

Adam Beach spoke with the media about the gifts some members of the cast received from Leto while he was away from the production.

“He sent [Margot Robbie] a nice love letter with a black box with a rat in it—a live rat. It was beautiful. Then he sent bullets to Will [Smith] with a letter.”

That was not all Leto sent to the set during his absence. Beach revealed that Leto sent the entire cast a video with a dead hog.

“Basically, what he said was, ‘Guys, I can’t be there but I want you to know I’m doing my work as hard as you guys. The video he showed is in character. It blew our minds away. Then we realized that day, this is real. He encompasses this beautiful man and he shows it in, ‘Hello, how are you?,’ but in an instant, he goes to psychotic behavior where you’re in fear but you love him because he has both of those genuine sides.”

Jared Leto knew that he had huge shoes to fill when he took on the role of The Joker in Suicide Squad. Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the villain was not too long ago, and it was an iconic portrayal. It was also his last role.

The actor spoke with Billboard about his decision to take on the role for this new film, according to International Business Times.

“The opportunity to take on this nearly Shakespearean character — that’s what graphic novels and comic books are becoming, right? [He’s] this beautiful disaster of a character — what a big challenge.”

For this role, he has gained weight and bulked up. In the past, he gained weight for his role in Chapter 27. A previous Inquisitr report revealed that Colin Farrell copied Leto’s method for gaining weight for his role in HBO’s True Detective. The pair worked together on Alexander, and they have remained friends.

Leto is well known for his method style of acting from his previous roles. His most recent role of Rayon in Dallas Buyers Club won Leto an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and several other awards following its release. For the role, Leto remained in character for the entire six weeks of production. Matthew McConaughey revealed during interviews and on stage during acceptance speeches that he never meet Jared Leto until the cameras stopped rolling on the film completely.

This is once again the case for his portrayal of The Joker. Jai Courtney is currently out promoting Terminator: Genisys, and he was asked about Suicide Squad and Leto’s Joker portrayal in an interview. He made it clear that Leto is once again going method for this role.

“I don’t know how you measure that these days. I haven’t seen him, since we started working, out-of-character, let’s put it that way.”

Another of his Suicide Squad co-stars, Scott Eastwood, spoke about working with Leto for this film, but he knew Leto from before, according to the Daily Mail.

“I was sort of afraid to approach him because I didn’t want to mess with his thing going on, but I knew him before. I met him before he was The Joker. I just met him as Jared Leto. So I didn’t know if I wanted to mess up his thing.”

Leto has not been on set much in recent weeks. He has been working on business matters for his band Thirty Seconds To Mars. In August, the band will host a Mars Summer Camp for a weekend in Malibu.

For the last week, Leto has been working with the World Wildlife Fund. He has spent time in Yellowstone and at Yosemite in recent days.

The actor is very vocal when it comes to nature. Earlier this month, Leto co-wrote an article with Carter Roberts about the ivory trade for Time. The article spoke passionately about the rush to save the world’s elephant population.

“Time is running out for elephants. There is one more step for the U.S. to take. Like China, the U.S. must end its commercial ivory trade. We acknowledge that such measures may require sacrifice on the part of some ivory owners. But for Africa’s vanishing elephants, these are the most desperate of times. The grim reality is that until superpowers like the U.S. and China close their commercial ivory markets, and freshly poached ivory can no longer masquerade as something it’s not, the blood of Africa’s elephants will continue to stain our collective hands.”

It is not known when Leto will return to the set of Suicide Squad. The film will continue production through late August. Right now, he is diving into the role with his usual method style, but he is not allowing the role to take him away from the other important areas of his life.

What do you think of Leto’s strange gifts and the work he is putting into his Joker portrayal?

[Photo: David Ayers Twitter]

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