Jared Leto Confirms Joker’s Return, Calls ‘Bulls—’ on Crazy ‘Suicide Squad’ Method Acting Stories
It’s been a wild, wild week for the DCEU. First came the report on a new Joker origin story movie executive produced by Martin Scorsese and scripted by Todd Phillips, the man who puts the “Bro” in Warner Bros. But then WB topped themselves in the WTF department just one day later with news of a Joker and Harley Quinn romance film from the directors of Crazy Stupid Love. While Jared Leto won’t be participating in Scorsese’s bizarro origin film, the actor has confirmed his return for the Harley Quinn team-up, which has officially knocked Gotham City Sirens off the WB schedule (for now).
Leto called in to the Kyle and Jackie O radio show in Australia (via Screen Rant), confirming that he’s very much still attached to play the Joker in both the upcoming Suicide Squad sequel (which is still looking for a director) and the Joker and Harley Quinn romance film (which is still looking for a reason to exist). The actor also took a moment to address what he calls the “hype” and “bulls—” surrounding his method acting antics on the set of the first Suicide Squad.
In case you forgot (I don’t know how you could), there were numerous reports about Leto’s exaggerated commitment to playing the clown prince of crime — like sending his co-stars used condoms, anal beads (!) and dead hogs, and gifting Margot Robbie with a live rat (which, like, isn’t that weird; rats are actually good pets). Although some of these stories came from Leto himself, the actor now says that most of it was “not even true”:
No… There’s so much hype and bullshit about [what happened with Suicide Squad], but I think it’s just a fun thing to talk about. Even when the movie came out, there was so much misrepresentation about what went down, about the ‘method acting’ crap – it’s just that 90% of it wasn’t true, and you can’t even… It takes on a life of its own. It was an incredible experience, everybody was amazing. Margot Robbie [is] one of the nicest people – one of the best actresses I’ve ever worked with, and I really loved working with her. I thought the scenes of what we did together were some of the most fun I’ve ever had on a set before… Everything’s great in that world, and I’m really proud to be a part of it.
Maybe next time he “gets into character,” Leto can blast Taylor Swift’s new single on repeat until his Squad begs to be fired.