Praise for Jared Leto in "Dallas Buyers Club" (TIFF) - full articles
Full length TIFF "Dallas Buyers Club" articles where the focus is on Jared.
For review excerpts: http://mlady-rebecca.livejournal.com/907048.html
For video links: http://mlady-rebecca.livejournal.com/907805.html
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2013/09/09/tiff-jared-leto/2787249/
Jared Leto is having an 'insane' time
Donna Freydkin, USA TODAY 2:53 p.m. EDT September 9, 2013
The actor/musician is one of the standouts at Toronto, thanks to "Dallas Buyers Club."
Leto
TORONTO - Dallas Buyers Club is one of the most talked-about films at the International Film Festival. And the award for most revelatory performance goes to Jared Leto.
Yes, the same chiseled actor who became famous for playing Jordan Catalano in the 1994 ABC TV series My So-Called Life. This time, he's a transgender character named Rayon who becomes Matthew McConaughey's pal in the drama (due out Nov. 1).
"There's been great drag queens in film. But I didn't want to put up onscreen this cross-dressing cliché that was the butt of every joke," says Leto. "I hadn't worked in a long time and I saw an opportunity there to bring to life a real person, not a cliché. There's a lot more Rayon in the film."
Leto attended Saturday's screening of the film, so surely he knows how well-received the film, and in particular, his performance, was?
"I never expected that. I knew I was very connected (to Rayon). I was in character (on set), which I know is a terrible term because it brings up ideas of pretentiousness. But how could you throw it all away, go have lunch, and then 'action'? I'd probably be terrible. I'd probably be a cliché. So I quickly transformed myself into this person," he says.
Leto grins. He's enjoying himself, for good reason. "The past 48 hours have been insane. I've had more effusive praise for this than I've had for anything in my life. I'm having a good time. I've met with probably 50 to 100 journalists. It's not work anymore. We can get together and celebrate."
Leto's last major film role was in the poorly received 2007 drama Chapter 27, playing John Lennon's killer, Mark David Chapman. He says all his choices have been based on passion, not money or accolades.
"That's never been my life. I reserve the right to make bad decisions. But I generally made art films. I was an art school dropout. I studied to be a painter. I don't even have any plans to make another film. Maybe it will take another five years," he says.
For now, Leto, 41, is busy with his day job, as part of the band Thirty Seconds to Mars. "We just released our fourth album. We've had more success than we ever dreamed of," he says. "It's the stuff of dreams."
http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/09/10/dallas-buyers-club-matthew-mcconaughey-jared-leto-toronto/
'Dallas Buyers Club': The Matthew McConaughey/Jared Leto buddy movie 1996 never saw coming
By Jeff Labrecque on Sep 10, 2013 at 9:08AM
Matthew McConaughey has been gaining Oscar goodwill ever since last year’s stripped-down performance in Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike, followed by the paparazzi photos showing People magazine’s Sexist Man Alive 2005 dropping nearly 50 pounds to play an AIDS patient in Dallas Buyers Club, which finally debuted over the weekend at the Toronto Film Festival. But should McConaughey earn his first nomination for his performance as Ron Woodroof, the hard-living Texas homophobe who defied his death-sentence diagnosis and federal health regulations in the 1980s to become a gay-community beacon by smuggling and selling foreign drug treatments that extended thousands of lives, he might have to share the Oscar limelight with his film’s leading lady.
Jared Leto, who hadn’t acted in five years, jumped into the Best Supporting Actor conversation after wowing Toronto audiences as Rayon, the HIV-positive transsexual who becomes Ron’s business partner and best friend. The colorful character had been the final frustrating piece to the movie’s casting puzzle, and Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallée (The Young Victoria) had discussions with Gael García Bernal and Casey Affleck about the role. But after one Skype meeting with the singer, who was in Berlin with his band, Vallée came away convinced that the Thirty Seconds to Mars rocker was his lady. Leto, who was once and forever Jordan Catalano on TV’s My So-Called Life, as well as a favorite of auteurs like Terrence Malick, David Fincher, and Darren Aronofsky, felt the same way. “When I read the role, I fell in love. I thought this could be really special because that role is usually… a cliché,” he says, lowering his voice to a whisper for the final two words. “It’s usually someone dancing on the table with high-heels on, the butt of every joke, or has a one-liner and then they run out the room screaming. I thought there was an opportunity to flesh out a real person.”
“I remember Jean-Marc calling, going, “Man, I think we found Rayon! Jared Leto!” says McConaughey. “I said great, and we were off.”
Like McConaughey, Leto underwent a dramatic physical transformation to play his ailing character, something he’d done before for both Requiem for a Dream and Chapter 27, in which he gained more than 60 pounds to play John Lennon’s assassin Mark David Chapman. “I stopped counting after I lost 30 pounds [for Rayon],” says Leto. “Someone pointed out to me that the difference between Chapter 27 and this was almost 100 pounds. That’s a person, almost. Crazy.”
For Leto, the weight-loss isn’t a stunt, but essential to his performance. “It changes the way you walk and talk and laugh,” he says. “It changes how people treat you. It changes a choice you would make in a scene, you know, if you lean up against a chair and have to catch your breath and you speak a little quieter and slower. So those things are wonderful.”
Once filming began, Leto never abandoned his character, utilizing the Method approach he’d practiced on previous movies. “I really only related to Matthew’s Ron Woodroof, and I never really had any smalltalk or anything else [out of character] the entire shoot,” says Leto, who set the tone for Rayon by hitting on his director the first time they met.
The technique was welcomed by McConaughey, who was happy to engage. “What was ideal about the way that Jared worked - and how I was choosing to work - was: that’s who you’re there to be. Be your character. We don’t need to step out and say, “How was the weekend? How are the kids?” We don’t need to do that. It’s fun to go to work and remain the subject, remain looking through the POV of your guy. That’s fun. And if someone else will do it, it’s kind of ideal. And it’s not a nuisance. It’s only a nuisance if someone does it so self-indulgently that it doesn’t help the filmmaking process.”
In the movie, the unlikely odd-couple bloom into one of this year’s most memorable on-screen pairings, McConaughey in a droopy mustache and a series of cowboy hats, Leto in Rayon’s deep-plunging blouses and makeup. (McConaughey likens the duo to Ratso Rizzo and Joe Buck from Midnight Cowboy.) They’re funny together, overcoming initial mistrust - and in Ron’s case, outright hostile bigotry - to act almost like an old married couple by the end. In one comical sequence, Ron’s one remaining sexual outlet is disturbed by a inconveniently placed glamour photograph of his flamboyant partner. In another touching scene at a grocery store (glimpsed in the trailer below), Ron physically corrects one of his prejudiced former drinking buddies who has disrespected Rayon. Ironically, it takes a transsexual to transform Ron into a true gentleman.
For Leto, part of the reason he was drawn to the role was very personal. When he had first moved to Los Angeles in his early 20s, he had a gay neighbor who was dying from AIDS. “I watched week after week as he withered away, got sicker and sicker, sores on his body, his neck, and face,” says Leto. “We would sometimes walk and get lunch, or walk to the store. He had a lot of dignity and humor and levity in his situation, so I think there are parts of him in this character as well. I think for people that haven’t been around or had an experience with someone who had been affected by this disease, it’s an easy thing to forget about right now, but I felt an obligation to bring as much grace and humanity to the role as possible.”
Both actors depart Toronto with solid Oscar buzz, and the Academy has traditionally been kind to outstanding gay or transgender performances, as well as roles that require dramatic physical transformation. (Tom Hanks in Philadelphia would be the best-known example of one who fits both criteria.) In this regard, Leto might actually have the better chance, especially since McConaughey joins what promises to be one of the most competitive Best Actor races in years.
A few years back, McConaughey stepped away from the business at a time when he was weary of making mediocre romantic-comedies and when he returned, he was welcomed back with a series of challenging job offers from revered directors like William Friedkin and Lee Daniels. Leto hadn’t really slowed down artistically during his Hollywood sabbatical - he just turned down movie roles to focus on other things, notably his music. But he believes that decision made all the difference. “I think those five years that I wasn’t acting taught me a lot,” says Leto. “It’s funny: in some ways, I felt like [Dallas Buyers Club] was the first thing I’d ever done in my life, the first role, the first film.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/10/jared-leto-on-his-brilliant-performance-as-a-transsexual-in-dallas-buyers-club.html
Jared Leto on His Brilliant Performance as a Transsexual in ‘Dallas Buyers Club’
by Marlow Stern Sep 10, 2013 5:00 AM EDT
Jared Leto gives an awardworthy turn as an AIDS-stricken transsexual drug addict who helps Matthew McConaughey peddle HIV meds in ‘Dallas Buyers Club.’ He sits down with Marlow Stern at TIFF to discuss the gender-bending role, his own struggle with drugs, and ‘My So-Called Life.’ are
There’s been plenty of awards chatter for Matthew McConaughey’s riveting portrayal of Ron Woodroof in Dallas Buyers Club. Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and loosely based on a true story, Woodroof is a sexual tyrannosaurus who is diagnosed with HIV in 1986 and given just 30 days to live. With his treatment options limited by FDA regulations, he begins smuggling nontoxic, non-FDA-approved antiviral medications from foreign countries into the U.S. to distribute to AIDS patients-much to the chagrin of his doctor, played by Jennifer Garner. Soon, he establishes the Dallas Buyers Club, charging “subscribers” $400 per month for meds. And McConaughey continues his midcareer “McConaissance” by dropping 38 pounds for the role, which he knocks out of the trailer park.
But it’s Jared Leto, as Woodroof’s right-hand lady, Rayon, who steals the show. Rayon is an HIV-positive transsexual drug addict who helps Woodruff get his business up and running, peddling antiviral HIV meds in the local gay clubs. Soon a strong bond forms between the homophobic Woodroof and his dress-wearing gal pal, who is the heart and soul of the film.
It’s Leto’s first film since 2007, when he gained 60 pounds to portray John Lennon’s demented assassin, Mark David Chapman, in the poorly received Chapter 27. In the interim, he’s been rocking out with his band Thirty Seconds to Mars, which released their fourth studio album, Love Lust Faith + Dreams, earlier this year, and he just took home an MTV VMA for Best Rock Video.
So, Rayon ...
Yes, darlin’? [Laughs]
How did you summon your inner tranny for this role?
It’s inside of all of us, our inner tranny. It’s about identity. All of us, at some point in our lives, ask ourselves who we really are. But I started by listening-meeting with transgendered people who were so generous and shared very private, personal aspects of their lives with me. And I worked, and I worked, and I worked.
Did you have any say in the outfits you wore? “Oh, no, that won’t do.”
Of course! You start to get involved. “That’s not going to work for me.” There was one area where I kind of stood my ground. We had a fantastic wardrobe department, but they were encouraging me to wear women’s pants, but I didn’t want to do it. I really wanted dresses, because for me, in that short period of time filming, I wanted to feel as feminine as possible. It’s a rare thing that you feel your legs touching in that way ... unless you sit around naked a lot. But it was a wild process. Things like that can be really important. The heels make you walk differently, having a handbag over your shoulder makes you carry yourself differently, and if you lose 30 pounds and weigh just 112 pounds, you’ll walk differently.
You lost 30 pounds for the role?
At least 30 pounds. I stopped counting at 30.
Was it tougher to lose 30 for Dallas Buyers, or gain a ton for Chapter 27?
Gaining is the hardest, and it’s the hardest on you, because it changes you forever. You can never recover from that, in a way. It’s still with me. It affects your body and your health in a really bad way. It’s very dangerous. And I’d gained 60 pounds.
Do your friends just pull up a picture of fat Jared from Chapter 27 to rag on you sometimes?
[Laughs] I enjoy the transformative process. I would have it be that way every time, although I kind of do, I suppose. It seems to be an area that I enjoy. I like pushing into the unknown.
Is this the first time you’ve ever tried on women’s clothes, or have you ever had an Ed Wood moment?
An Ed Wood moment ... or three? [Laughs] I remember when I was a kid, I put on lipstick once. I was goofing off, and I put it on, and then I stared at myself in the mirror for a moment just being startled, in a way. I think lipstick is really powerful; it’s a signifier. Someone might wear eyeliner on a stage, but lipstick is your mouth, it’s where you communicate, it’s a very sexualized thing, and if you kiss someone, you’ll leave your mark.
But isn’t it armor, in a way? When I’m out with a girl and she’s wearing heavy lipstick, I think, shit, this is going to leave marks all over me.
Sometimes that’s a good thing, man!
Touché. I read that you, like Rayon, had your own personal battle with drugs during your teenage years.
I did. As far as the drug usage and dysfunction, my own personal experiences with that helped me inform the performance. It was actually a blessing, because all that stuff back in the day helped me prepare, so I didn’t have to do that stuff.
Everyone experiments, but how bad did it get?
I would say I moved past the experimental phase pretty quickly and into the full-blown phase.
Was it just coke, or ...
Not just coke. I did everything. Everything. I was an equal-opportunity consumer, and if you had it, I did it. But it really taught me a lot about myself and was a great learning experience.
So it’s a pretty interesting full-circle moment, then, that your finest screen performance to date-in my opinion-is as a druggie struggling with inner demons.
That’s a great way of putting it. This performance is related to some of the biggest challenges I’ve had in my life.
You penned a piece recently in The Big Issue for their series Letter to My Younger Self and mentioned a moment “involving a gun and some cocaine” that was a turning point for you. What happened there?
[Pauses] Those are the things you can’t go into too deeply. That was an indication that this was a road that was going to end abruptly, and it was up to me whether I was going to stay on it or not.
OK, this is going to be a harsh transition back to Rayon, but did you ever go out on the town in drag?
I did! I remember I went to Whole Foods once, and it was interesting, because I got a lot of stares. Nobody recognized me, but they certainly stared. Some people stared in curiosity, some in amazement, and others in judgment, so it was interesting to get that glare. That happened to me when I was fat, too [for Chapter 27]. If I was in character, there was something unsettling about me, and I remember asking someone for the time on the street, and they shooed me away. And I remember seeing people I knew who saw me with the gained weight, and they didn’t know it was for a film. I’ll never forget this. It was a producer in Hollywood, and they treated me really badly. They thought I’d just gone off the deep end. They said, “Oh, wow, you’ve certainly grown up, haven’t you?” in a very, very patronizing, judgmental way. And I couldn’t believe it. But those are the important things to understand, with a character like Rayon.
So you direct music videos, front a popular rock band, and act in feature films. How do you manage to wear all these different hats?
Whether I’m directing, or acting in a film, or standing on stage, it really comes from the same place. It’s creative problem solving, and making something and sharing it with people. I was just downstairs editing the new video for Thirty Seconds to Mars during lunchtime and then warming up my voice a little for upcoming shows, and now I’m here talking with you. You have to look at it like that, or else you’ll go crazy. That being said, if I’m working on Dallas Buyers Club, I’ll shut everything else out.
It’s been over five years since you shot your last film, so did you view this role as a personal challenge, to see if you’ve still got it?
Yeah, it has been over five years since my last film. I thought, what a steep climb ... This is great! I felt like this part was something I had to do. The challenge was too great that it seduced me.
I’m a ’90s kid, so we’ve got to discuss My So-Called Life. What are your feelings when you look back on that period? Are you like, shit, this is so ’90s and embarrassing, or do you look back on it with fondness?
I hear the ’90s are back in style! [Laughs] Overall, in my life, I do a lot of different things. When I look at the past, which I rarely ever do, because I’m so consumed and compelled with the things I have in the present, I just have a lot of gratitude. I grew up incredibly poor with a single mom raising two kids who had us when she was a teenager. We were food-stamp poor. So, to be sitting here and talking about my career is like, Jesus Christ. It’s all amazing.
You just introduced Kanye West at the MTV VMAs and collaborated with him on the song “Hurricane.” What’s your take on Kanye? He’s a compelling dude that I feel is misunderstood by a lot of people.
He’s fascinating. At the core of what he does, he’s an artist. He makes things. We’re very similar in that respect, and I think we’ve always had a really strong connection and relate to one another, because we love the process. He likes to make things just to make them, whether it’s clothes or music or anything else. And he’s had a lot of success in his life and doesn’t have to work if he doesn’t want to.
Interesting. OK, I’m going to close this out with a Dallas Buyers question to take it full circle. Did you and McConaughey have any sort of bonding ritual before shooting?
I just met him yesterday for the first time. I was in character the entire shoot, every single day. I met the director and McConaughey and Jennifer [Garner] for the first time yesterday. They were joking about that, but it’s actually the truth. We had our first conversations.
So people were calling you Rayon on set?
Yeah, they were.
How far did you take it? Did you sleep in your dresses?
A lady doesn’t sleep in her garments, honey!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/11/jared-leto-dallas-buyers-club_n_3905893.html
Jared Leto's 'Dallas Buyers Club' Performance Wins Raves At Toronto
By JAKE COYLE 09/10/13 08:30 PM ET EDT AP
TORONTO - Jared Leto's return to acting started, as so many things do, with a flirtation.
It had been five years since Leto last acted (the sci-fi indie "Mr. Nobody"), a movie career put on hold while his band, 30 Seconds to Mars, unexpectedly surged in popularity. The possibility of playing Rayon, a transgender person dying of AIDS for the film "Dallas Buyers Club," came to him while he was on tour in Europe.
After initially dismissing the chance, Leto read the script and he reversed course immediately. When he met with the director Jean-Marc Vallee via Skype, he was already trying on Rayon.
"I used it as a test for myself," Leto said in an interview. "I got some lipstick. We said hello and then I reached over and grabbed the lipstick and I proceeded to put it on. He was kind of like, `What the hell is going on?' I took off my jacket and I had a little pink sweater on."
Vallee was properly seduced. He offered Leto the part the next morning.
The based-on-a-true story "Dallas Buyers Club" premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival over the weekend, ahead of its Nov. 1 release from Focus Features. It stars Matthew McConaughey as Ron Woodroof, a Texas man who after being diagnosed with HIV and given days to live in 1986, is frustrated by the federal Food and Drug Administration's available treatments and begins illegally importing drugs from Mexico and elsewhere. Though he's initially homophobic toward Rayon, they become friends and business partners.
The performances by McConaughey and Leto, both of which involved dropping dozens of pounds (Leto shed more than 30 pounds), were roundly applauded in Toronto and hailed as likely Oscar nominees.
"I can't believe five years went by," the 41-year-old Leto says of his return to the big screen. "It's amazing to me."
Leto founded the rock trio 30 Seconds to Mars with his drummer brother Shannon Leto in 1998, but it was their 2005 film record, "A Beautiful Lie," which brought mainstream success, selling more than a million copies in the U.S. The band has since released two albums, including "Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams" earlier this year.
"We had more success than we ever dreamed of with 30 Seconds to Mars. We were playing the biggest shows of our lives," Leto said.
But Leto threw himself into the role of Rayon. Vallee said the premiere was the first time he met Leto, having previously only experienced Rayon. The actor sought out transgender people to listen to their experiences, intent on not playing Rayon as a stereotypical, one-liner-spewing drag queen.
"I saw the part as not a cross-dressing drag queen but someone who wanted to live their life as a woman," says Rayon. "In my initial meetings before I accepted the part, I made that pretty clear that that was really important to me."
Leto was particularly drawn to the film for the chance to work alongside McConaughey, whom he says he wanted to "get in the ring with."
"He gave me the courage to jump on board," Leto said.
The two both appear startlingly gaunt in the film. Leto has previously fluctuated his weight for parts, losing 25 pounds for his drug addict role in Darren Aronofsky's "Requiem for a Dream" ("You can see it in my eyes in that film," he says) and gaining some 60 pounds to play Beatle John Lennon's killer David Chapman for "Chapter 27."
"It's a tool. That's it," says Leto of the weight loss. "It's a crazy thing to do and incredibly stupid and dangerous. But it's a great tool because it changes how you walk, how you talk, how you sit, how you breathe, how you eat, how you laugh, how people treat you. It creates a sense of fragility."
Leto, though, still hasn't seen "Dallas Buyers Club." He deliberately avoids watching the films he acts in. He only caught "Requiem for a Dream" years afterward because, he says, "Darren made me." During the Toronto premiere of "Dallas Buyers Club," he went back to his hotel room to work on an upcoming music video. He has no plans to catch the film any time soon.
"Based on the past 48 hours of the most effusive praise I've ever gotten, the film can never live up to any expectation that I would have for it," he says. "I'll give it a few decades."
Follow AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jake_coyle
http://www.nme.com/filmandtv/news/30-seconds-to-mars-jared-leto-is-a-leading-contender/320420
September 10, 2013 11:35
30 Seconds To Mars' Jared Leto is a leading contender for best supporting actor Oscar
Leto is 10/1 to win for his performance as a transsexual woman in 'Dallas Buyers Club'
30 Seconds To Mars' Jared Leto is a leading contender for best supporting actor Oscar
Jared Leto is a leading contender for next year's best supporting actor Oscar, according to the latest odds from bookmakers.
The 30 Seconds To Mars frontman is gathering awards buzz for his performance in Dallas Buyers Club, a film inspired by the real-life story of Rod Woodroof, a Texan electrician diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 1986 who began smuggling alternative drugs into America to help himself and other AIDS patients.
Matthew McConaughey stars as Woodroof, while Leto plays Rayon, a transsexual woman with HIV who helps him import the illegal medication. Both actors lost a considerable amount of weight for their roles - watch the trailer below.
Leto is currently 3/1 to receive a best supporting actor nomination for next year's Oscars, which take place on March 2, 2014, and 10/1 to take home the gong on the night, bookmakers William Hill have confirmed. That makes him fourth favourite to win behind Michael Fassbender, 9/4 favourite for his performance in 12 Years A Slave, Tom Hanks, 11/4 for Captain Phillips and John Goodman, 11/2 for Inside Llewyn Davis.
A William Hill spokesperson told NME: "Leto has not really been on our screens so much in an acting capacity recently, so it is great to see him back and at his best. There is every chance that he could walk away with an Oscar for this performance."
Leto makes his first film appearance since 2009 in Dallas Buyers Club as in recent years he has concentrated on touring and recording with 30 Seconds To Mars, who released their fourth album 'Love, Lust, Faith And Dreams' in May of this year (2013). Leto rose to prominence in '90s teen TV series My So-Called Life opposite Claire Danes and later appeared in films including in Requiem For A Dream, Fight Club and American Psycho.
http://www.hitsdailydouble.com/news/rumormill.cgi?10
FESTIVAL BUZZ: With his band Thirty Seconds to Mars about to hit the Rock in Rio, iTunes and iHeartRadio Festivals, and with new single “City of Angels” happening at Alternative radio, Jared Leto is also the subject of … Oscar speculation? Yep, the rocker’s performance in the critically adored indie film Dallas Buyers Club has sparked talk of a Best Supporting Actor nomination since its 9/7 premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. “If there is one actor everyone is suddenly talking about, it’s Leto,” Deadline Hollywood’s Pete Hammond wrote from Toronto, describing Leto’s character, Rayon-a transsexual living with HIV/AIDS-as “the role of a lifetime with at least two killer scenes that scream OSCAR to me.” The L.A.Times declared, “One of the great revelations in the film is Jared Leto,” who “balances the showiness of the role with … subtle humanity, and the crowd demonstrated its appreciation.” Check out the trailer here. (9/10p)
http://entertainment.inquirer.net/113539/jared-leto-on-performing-in-manila-and-the-perils-of-pantyhose
Only In Hollywood
Jared Leto on performing in Manila … and the perils of pantyhose
By Ruben V. Nepales
Philippine Daily Inquirer
September 21, 2013 | 11:28 pm
JARED Leto portrays a transgender in Jean-Marc Vallée’s fact-based drama, “Dallas Buyers Club.” He says it’s a great opportunity to bring to life a real person. “I didn’t want her to be a cliché.”
LOS ANGELES - Jared Leto disappears completely as a transgender in “Dallas Buyers Club.” In a performance that makes him a strong best supporting actor contender in the coming awards season, Jared is Rayon, a transsexual who forms an unlikely alliance with a fellow AIDS patient, Ron Woodroof (an equally compelling Matthew McConaughey), a real-life character whose story about learning alternative treatments in Mexico and smuggling them into the United States inspired this film directed by Jean-Marc Vallée.
It’s a career-defining role that got Jared to act again after being busy with his band, Thirty Seconds to Mars, where he’s the lead singer.
Looking like a rock star with mustache and beard, a complete contrast to the delicate (externally, at least) character he played in “Dallas,” Jared mentioned right away in our interview in Toronto that he and his band had performed in Manila.
“Oh, it was incredible,” Jared said of his band’s stay in the Philippines. “And what great food too, by the way. There aren’t enough Filipino restaurants in America … But it (the Philippines) was fantastic.”
He volunteered: “You know what’s interesting about the Philippines is that they still sing so loud. My God, you people love to sing. Everybody was singing loudly. It was amazing. We had a fantastic time and I hope to come back really soon.”
“It was a couple of years ago,” Jared recalled the rock band’s concert in July 2011. “It was the monsoon period. It was raining and we thought we had to cancel the show but it was really beautiful.”
World tour
What else has he been doing that keeps him away from acting? “I’ve been studying meditation in India for the past five years,” he quipped. “I’ve been making shoes in Italy, like Daniel Day-Lewis.”
Jared was joking; he was riffing on that famous trivia about Daniel which the latter said was not true.
“I had been on tour with Thirty Seconds to Mars in Germany a lot,” Jared clarified, a bit more serious. “We did Rock am Rick & Rock im Park and we are in Berlin later this year. We are returning to Hamburg and Cologne. We are touring a lot all over the world, playing shows from the Philippines to France.”
“I’ve been making albums and touring,” he said. “I was here (in Toronto) last year with a documentary called ‘Artifact,’ which is about our battles with our record company (Virgin Records) … they sued us for $30 million. I was fairly busy-not a lot of fun but I am really glad that I had the opportunity to make a film again and be a little mysterious.”
LOOKING every inch a rock star, Jared Leto recalls visiting Manila with his band Thirty Seconds to Mars: “It was incredible and what great food!” Photo by Ruben V. Nepales
And what a return to the big screen it is. “When I first read the script, I thought there was a great opportunity here to portray and bring to life a real person,” he explained. “We see these characters and usually they are clichés. They are stereotypes-the drag queen dancing on the table, who always has the punch line and is running out of the room at the end of every scene. I didn’t want to do that. That has been covered and sometimes really fun and well-from ‘Tootsie’ to whatever. There have been incredible performances out there.
“But I wanted to bring to life a real person-this young woman who was finding herself. The things that I admired about the character were exactly what I was brought up on. She was incredibly compassionate, open, gentle, kind and emotive. I am not like that all the time. I can be guarded and I liked that side of the character. I hope that I am able to keep some of those characteristics that I really admired.”
Asked what helped him give a stunning performance, Jared answered, “I think it was a combination of things-script, role, fellow cast members, and there was some magic there. But you know what the most important thing was? Good old-fashioned, hard f***ing work. That’s what does it. It’s elbow grease, digging in, working, working and working some more. That’s how you get that. I am a big believer in the reality and a dream is just work. I am a worker. That’s what I do.”
The Louisiana-born actor said, “It wasn’t difficult to find my inner Rayon. I think about Rayon and the things that are important -kindness, sense of humor, a gentle soul, the type of person who could be having the worst day ever, sick and feeling absolutely horrible, but she would stop and ask somebody else how he is or try and make someone else laugh or try to make his day better.”
Complimented that he makes one pretty woman, Jared broke into a wide grin and remarked, “Well, thank you very much! I am a very beautiful woman, unlike Dustin Hoffman. He had nice calves but I think my ankles put him to shame.”
On whether he agreed with Mel Gibson who said that he had no trouble pulling on the pantyhose for a scene in “What Women Want,” Jared was emphatic in his reply: “I am going to disagree with Mel Gibson. I found pantyhose to be the worst thing to wear. It’s worse than heels. Your circulation is cut off. I had to wear two pairs of tights sometimes. They were so tight. Oh my God, that was not fun. That was not the most comfortable. I didn’t feel free.”
A bit flirty
Jared conceded that there were “really nice” aspects about being a woman on the set. “People treated me very well. It was always interesting on the set. It was always the biggest, toughest, strongest teamster who was a little bit flirty. He wanted to hold my hand when I got out of the van and said, ‘Right this way, ma’am.’ People really forgot it was me because I was in character the whole time. It was incredible.”
Standing up and then walking like a woman, he shared, “A couple of times, I would walk down and see a teamster walk by, checking me out.” Jared demonstrated a teamster turning around and looking at him. “It was great.”
But he admitted that he didn’t always get amorous reactions. “When I was shooting this film, one day I went to Whole Foods. It was impossible not to be noticed. I thought I made a pretty good woman but not everybody thought so. People stared. Being that thin, I got a look of curiosity and another look of judgment.”
The role is a big comeback for Jared who was getting major roles but decided to concentrate on his musical career in the last few years. Jared remembered the first time he moved to LA to try his luck as an actor and how that helped him portray Rayon. “When I first moved to LA, I rented a room in a little apartment that a woman owned, and she also lived there. It was a three-bedroom unit. I had a bed jammed into a closet. That was after I had slept on the beach for a while. But that’s a different story.”
Grace and humanity
“There was a man who rented one of the rooms. He was in his 40s and dying of AIDS. I had never seen anything like it. I watched him wither away week after week. We would sometimes walk, get lunch together or go to the grocery store. He was always busy making shakes from vegetables-something I had never seen before. This was way before Jamba Juice. He was an amazing human being. He had an incredible sense of humor, grace and humanity and taught me a lot. I was able to learn some of those lessons, and have greater understanding and empathy.”
On sleeping on the beach and other places while he was trying to make it in LA, Jared revealed, “There were a couple of times in my life when I was homeless. One of those times wasn’t so bad. It was when I came to LA for the first time with a backpack and a couple hundred dollars in my pocket. I ended up sleeping on Venice Beach. I was young and healthy and I knew it was just for a short period of time. I was intent on making a new life for myself. I ended up staying in a crack motel for a few nights and then in a youth hostel. Eventually, I got that apartment that I talked about. That was my beginning in Los Angeles, not too dissimilar from probably a lot of other people.”
These days, Jared is making sure to appreciate the raves he’s been earning and not thinking of his next career move. “I haven’t made any plans to make another film. It would have to be very special, especially after this. This was a life-changing experience and it continues to be.”
He has no regrets. “I am really proud of the choices that I’ve made. I followed my gut, heart and dreams. And I had this opportunity.”
E-mail the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com. Follow him at http://twitter.com/nepalesruben.