The entire persona of Jared Leto is built on contradictions. After all, the actor is famed for his intense dedication and Method approach to almost every character he plays, while at the same time holding a reputation as a somewhat eccentric and carefree bohemian type.
He won an Academy Award for Dallas Buyers Club, which involved him waxing his entire body, shaving off his eyebrows and dropping 30 pounds, while he put himself in a wheelchair after gaining 67 pounds to play John Lennon’s killer in Chapter 27 and contracting gout for his efforts, only to see the movie bomb at the box office and get panned by critics.
Then there are the bizarre tales of his behavior on the set of Suicide Squad, where he sent his co-stars a series of unsettling ‘gifts’, and Will Smith admitted that he never even met Jared Leto the man until the DCEU blockbuster’s premiere. That sort of intensity is juxtaposed by the 49 year-old revealing that he had no idea the world was gripped by the Coronavirus pandemic because he’d been at a silent meditation retreat in the heart of the desert where technology was banned, and those in charge decided not to inform the participants.
Leto recently picked up a Golden Globe nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category for his performance as the unsettling Albert Sparma in Denzel Washington’s crime thriller The Little Things, and his reaction to the news was exactly what you’d expect.
“I mean, complete transparency, I didn’t even know the nominations were coming out today. I had trouble sleeping last night. I was tossing and turning. I went rock climbing yesterday in the mountains, and I think it was a bit restless from that. I finally got to bed, it was pretty late, so I slept in a little bit later. And when I woke up, I picked up my phone, I saw a lot of messages, and I thought, ‘Oh, I must be on a group chain or something’. But when I opened up the messages and I saw the nomination, I admit I was quite shocked. I didn’t really expect it. My mind is just not in that head space right now.”
Of course, Jared Leto was completely unaware that he’d secured a major awards nomination because he was exhausted from rock climbing deep in the California wilderness, but he’ll no doubt be happy given that The Little Things received a very lukewarm reception when it was released last month.