Jared Leto 2016-03-25 Billboard, 'Suicide Squad' Director Says 'The Crew Stops Working' When Jared Leto Does The Joker

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7280199/suicide-squad-jared-leto-joker-crew-stops-working

'Suicide Squad' Director Says 'The Crew Stops Working' When Jared Leto Does The Joker

3/25/2016 by Jessie Katz

Jared Leto as the Joker in the official trailer for "Suicide Squad."

Courtesy Photo

Suicide Squad director David Ayer has set the DC Comics fan world a-buzzing after an interview with Total Film [via DC Vertigo Daily] in which he speaks of Jared Leto's performance as the Joker in almost messianic terms.

Leto, the Oscar-winning actor and frontman of 30 Seconds to Mars, was tapped back in 2014 to play the iconic role in Warner Bros.' film featuring iconic DC Comics supervillains. Of the opportunity to play such a legendary character already immortalized by the likes of Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger, Leto told Billboard last year, "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."

Ayer describes the experience of watching Leto-as-Joker as one in which "the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.

"What Jared has done is absolutely incredible," he gushes. "When he steps onto the set the world stops. Everything stops. What he’s done is so powerful, so menacing, so palpable, you can feel him. The crew stops working and just watches him. I have to get everybody going again because he’s so fascinating."

Fans will have to wait until the film's official release date of Aug. 5 to see it for themselves.

Jared Leto, 2015-10-06 - VFHollywood, Will Smith Reveals Just How Intense Jared Leto’s Suicide Squad Transformation Was

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/10/jared-leto-joker-suicide-squad-will-smith?mbid=social_facebook

TRANSFORMATIONS

October 6, 2015 5:40 pm

Will Smith Reveals Just How Intense Jared Leto’s Suicide Squad Transformation Was

“We worked together for six months and we’ve never exchanged a word outside of ‘Action!’ and ‘Cut!’”

by Julie Miller

For his Oscar-winning role in Dallas Buyers Club, Jared Leto lost 30 pounds, shaved his entire body, and refused to break character while filming the drama. And for his follow-up role in the upcoming Suicide Squad, Leto reportedly took his transformation into the iconic super-villain The Joker just as seriously.

In a new interview, Leto’s co-star Will Smith, who plays Deadshot, reveals that Leto completely disappeared into his character so much so that Smith still doesn’t know what Leto, the actor, is like in real life.

“[Suicide Squad] is insane,” Smith said in a Beats 1 interview Monday (via Complex). “I’ve never actually met Jared Leto. We worked together for six months and we’ve never exchanged a word outside of ‘Action!’ and ‘Cut!’ I literally have not met him yet. So, the first time I see him will be ‘Hey, Jared. What’s up?’ He was all in on the Joker.”

This summer, Leto and Smith’s Suicide Squad cast mate Adam Beach, who plays Slipknot, revealed that Leto sent out gifts in character as well.

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

According to Beach, Leto also sent the cast a video and a “dead hog.” Beach explained of the cryptic gestures, “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.”

Leto isn’t the first character to disappear into the role of The Joker. While filming The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger kept a diary of the character. Ledger’s father, Kim, has has since revealed, “He pretty well locked himself up in a hotel, in his apartment, for a month or so, to sort of galvanize the upcoming character in his own mind. . . . That was typical of Heath on any movie. He would certainly immerse himself in the upcoming character. I think this was just a whole new level.”

Ledger was awarded a posthumous Oscar for his chilling performance. Take a sneak peek at Leto’s Joker below in the Suicide Squad trailer.