There’s a lot of contention among several elements in the DC Extended Universe (DC’s Cinematic Universe). I remain an eternal optimist. Luthenberg made a lot of people uneasy and irritated even more people, while I loved his take on the character from the first time we saw any footage of him. The same goes for Jared Leto’s Joker in the upcoming Suicide Squad. While I don’t necessarily like the tattoos and grills, the first footage of Leto’s Joker gave me goosebumps. Like many of you, The Joker is my favorite Batman character, so I’m very attached to the character and know him very well, and I believe The Joker is in good hands.
Entertainment Weekly managed to grab an interview with the Oscar-winning actor to talk about his turn as the Clown Prince of Crime. I believe it’s one of the first times he’s ever talked about it.
It’s a pretty fascinating interview, in which he talks about how the character was created and how he approached it. Leto is a method actor, which means the research can get pretty intensive. He talks about what he did to become the Joker:
“I first started at the beginning, educating myself, researching, reading as much as I could, going back to the source material. And then at a certain point, I knew I had to stop doing that. Because the Joker has been redefined, reinvented many times before. I think the fun thing about it is when people have done it in the past, there is some spirit of the Joker essence that they keep, but they either build upon something or tear something down and start again at the beginning. For me, I knew once I had gone through the process of educating myself, I had to throw everything away and start from the beginning and really build this from the ground up. It was a transformative process. There was a physical transformation. There was a physical conditioning.”
People get really attached to the character they know and love and I totally understand why, but to steadfastly refuse any newer adaptation is just plain silly. It seems like Leto had to come to that realization early on in the process if he was going to be able to play the character the way he wanted. Of course, like every actor so far in the DCEU, he honors Heath Ledger and all the other performers before him who played the character and he seems genuinely excited be the Joker.
When asked about what he specifically did to get to the Joker, Leto replied:
There are a lot of things. It’s probably better to not get into it but to the Joker, violence is a symphony. This is someone who gets an extreme reward from the act of violence and manipulation. Those are the songs he sings and he is very in tune with what makes people tick. I did meet with people that were experts, doctors, psychiatrists that dealt with psychopaths and people who had committed horrendous crimes, and then I spent some time with those people themselves, people who have been institutionalized for great periods of time. I guess when you take on a role, any role, you become part detective, part writer, and for me that’s my favorite time of the entire process, the discovering, the uncovering, and the building of a character. Yeah, it’s really fun.”
It may all be part of the act, but I’m slightly unnerved that he’s unwilling to divulge what he did with regards to violence.
As expected with the attention-grabbing headlines, the interview shifts focus to the “gifts” he sent his fellow castmates, which he says was to “set up and define [their] relationship.”
But more importantly, the interviewer begins inquiring about the Joker’s infamous look, explaining that although it was a collaborative effort, Ayer really took the reins in regards to the tattoos. Leto admits that he was more focused on the character rather than the look.
“I think the most important thing I brought was probably not to do with the outside but with the internal. But you know, David [Ayer] was specific with tattoos. They were his idea but there was a lot to play with… I think for the Joker and the process, it’s probably best to talk to the other people. I don’t mean that dismissively, but I think it will be more interesting.”
Like I said, a fascinating read. You can check out the rest of it here.
For the most part, Leto comes off as an actor who’s extremely excited to play such a coveted role, recognizes the past, but freed himself from those reins to create his own take on the character. He’s a method actor, so he really tried to immerse himself in that role. It may not necessarily be the Joker that we all know, but it’s going to contain some semblance of the character, likely with a very different twist. Which isn’t too dissimilar from Luthenberg. Is that what DC is going for? A reinvention of their characters for the big screen?
What do you think? Not the Joker you wanted? Or are you excited to see how Leto plays him? Let me know.
Suicide Squad hits theatres on August 5th, 2016.