Jared Leto is an actor like no other. Through his use of method acting and fully embodying a role, it’s no wonder Leto won Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars in 2014. However, that doesn’t mean he says yes to every role that comes his way. The actor-musician speaks about why he says “no” to a lot of movie roles (like when he walked away from the chance to be in Titanic), and how fellow method actor Daniel Day-Lewis was his inspiration for that.
Before signing on to his Oscar-winning role in Dallas Buyers Club with Matthew McConaughey, Leto took on a five-year hiatus from acting. While speaking to The Little Things costar John David Washington on Variety’s Actors on Actors, the Suicide Squad actor explained why he said “no” to a lot of movie roles during his acting hiatus, and how Oscar-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis plays into all of this.
I always remember reading Daniel Day-Lewis went off to learn how to make shoes in Italy for five years, which I thought was hilarious. Who knows if it’s even true or not. I don’t really have that much interest in shoes. I’m fortunate in the sense that I always have a creative outlet. So I’m not dependent on films to give me creative reward or to make a living.
Jared Leto is referring to when Daniel Day-Lewis went into semi-retirement after starring in The Boxer. From 1997-2000, he was apparently an apprentice shoemaker in Florence, Italy. In 2017, before his historical drama movie Phantom Thread came out, Lewis released a statement that he was retiring from acting. The English actor's reasoning for the retirement was just that he decide to listen to his instincts that it was time to stop.
As for what the Best Actor recipient is doing now, the latest update came from Daily Mail where he was walking arm-in-arm with his wife, Rebecca Miller, in New York City celebrating their 25th anniversary. However, there haven’t been reports on what the retired actor is doing for work now. But like Jared Leto has his music to fall back on, we all know that Lewis has the skills of a cobbler if that’s what he wanted to do.
The Fight Club actor reflected to Variety he was quite choosy with his roles at the beginning of his acting career because he only wanted to take on what he was ready for. Being a musician has always been Leto’s first love, and he still pursues it outside of acting. He’s been the frontman of his rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars since 1998. In fact, they just released their sixth album It's the End of the World but It's a Beautiful Day this year.
But when the Girl, Interrupted actor does take on a role, he goes all out. Just like Daniel Day-Lewis was a method actor, Leto took on the same style to get into character. For example, he sent creepy gifts to his co-stars when working on his controversial Joker performance in Suicide Squad, as well as making himself go blind for Blade Runner 2049 by wearing cloudy contact lenses to play blind CEO Niander Wallace.
The 51-year-old actor and musician has a lot of projects that he has agreed to say yes to. After starring in the superhero movie Morbius, his next confirmed role is in the Andy Warhol biopic. I’ve got to say, playing the leading figure of the pop art movement would be perfect for the visionary artiste actor. He’s also part of the cast of the Disney threequel Tron 3, but filming was delayed in August due to the SAG-AFTRA Writers Strike.
Leto is also set to reunite with his Requiem for a Dream director Darren Aronofsky in a movie called Adrift about a fishing boat that comes across an abandoned yacht in the middle of the ocean with an unsettling discovery. Furthermore, he'll play the late Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld in a movie he’ll star in and produce. All of these projects look like movies that'll put Leto right back on the Hollywood map as he did in Dallas Buyers Club.
Jared Leto told Variety that he tends to put a lot of pressure on himself to perfect the roles he plays, so it makes sense why he won’t agree to a role unless he fully believes he’s got what it takes. Like Daniel Day-Lewis, Leto knows he’s got another skill to fall back on. Make sure to look at our 2024 movie releases in case the method actor finds his way in there.
