Jared Leto's Short Tenure as the Joker Has Made Him a Much-Hated Actor
Updated July 7 2020, 7:53 p.m. ET
Lately, none of the talks about Jared Leto are good. Despite having a long list of movie credits to be acclaimed for, if you google "Jared Leto," the search results return plenty of articles about the public's open distaste for the actor. There's even an entire page with reasons why he "might be the biggest d-bag in Hollywood."
But why do people hate Jared Leto so much?
Believe it or not, it all stems back to his mere 10 minutes of screen time in the DC Universe movie Suicide Squad.
Jared Leto took his role in 'Suicide Squad' too far.
Probably one of the main reasons Jared isn't popular anymore is his overexuberance after being cast as the Joker in the first Suicide Squad movie. Jared was the first to take on the role after Heath Ledger.
It's not unlike an actor to take their movie roles seriously, extending their personification of the character beyond their time on set. But it wasn't long after filming had wrapped up that reports started circulating that some of Jared's antics were more disturbing than anything. Allegedly, he sent a dead rat to co-star Margot Robbie, gifted the entire cast a dead pig, and sent other actors used condoms and anal beads as "gifts."
Allegedly, this was all done in an effort to better personify the Joker, though it accomplished little more than making his costars feel unsettled and repulsed.
His efforts to one-up Heath's original Joker ended up backfiring, and by the time the movie aired, Jared's screen time was cut down to 10 minutes, despite being featured heavily in the trailer.
“In his defense, it was never really his movie, but his attempt to 'invent' a place for himself in it backfired,” a source told The Hollywood Reporter of how Jared handled his role.
He even tried to get Joaquin Phoenix's 'Joker' dropped.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jared was under the impression that his initial stint as the Joker would lead to many more movie roles — and just after Suicide Squad's release, there were talks of a few movies with Jared as the Joker.
But none of those came to fruition, and when he got wind that Joaquin Phoenix would be taking on the role to tell the supervillain's origin story, he felt "alienated and upset." In response to the news, Jared actually attempted to stop the new production from happening.
The outlet claims that he complained about the movie to both his agents at CAA (who also rep Todd Phillips, who directed the new Joker) and even tried to contact Warner Bros.' parent company to get the movie pulled, obviously to no success.
Considering it seems Jared has burned most of his bridges with anyone involved in the DC Universe, don't expect him to return as the Joker in any capacity anytime soon — though you'll be able to watch Joaquin reprise the role for a sequel.
