Jared Leto’s mega successful music and acting career has been a “slow burner”.
The Louisiana-born star began acting in his early 20s, after first trying to make it as a director. He found fame on cult teen drama My So-Called Life, opposite Claire Danes, and has been acting ever since.
During the late ‘90s he also tried his hand at being a rock star, forming platinum selling band Thirty Seconds to Mars with his brother Shannon and guitarist Tomo Milicevic. While leading a dual life as a rocker and an Oscar-winning actor is the stuff of dreams, Jared remains nonchalant about his success.
“My career has had a nice slow burn. You know? I never woke up one day and all of a sudden my life changed,” he shrugged to America’s GQ magazine. “And I’m grateful for that, because I think it has allowed me the time and space to adjust accordingly, to find out where and how I’m comfortable doing things.
“Fame has never been a target for me.”
After wowing in Dallas Buyers Club, his 2013 big screen comeback, Jared’s next project has also got people talking. He plays The Joker in Suicide Squad, a part previously made famous by Jack Nicholson and the late Heath Ledger.
Heath was lauded with a posthumous Oscar for the part, following the actor’s tragic death from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs in 2008. At the time it was suggested Heath’s transformation into the twisted character may have contributed to his death, and Jared confesses he too felt darkness creeping in during his portrayal.
“There was a point where I was researching violence and was watching a lot of things that… things that it’s arguable if anybody should even see,” he shared. “And I noticed that started to have an impact on me that I didn’t like, so I stopped. It starts to just get inside of you, violence and some of those things. But you know, I’ve made some pretty dark films.”
