WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
Writing this article, I was given a little bit of a shock. I believed that any of Jared Leto’s acting followed the beginning of his band Thirty Seconds to Mars but actually it turns out that he was acting before this! I know for some people they may only have turned round and said ‘Who is this guy?’ when he was cast as the Joker in Suicide Squad but he did already have quite a few films to his name before this. So, knowing what I now know I just had to watch some of his earlier films to find out what they were like…
Prefontaine
Firstly, I just want to point out what a great match Leto is for Steve Prefontaine. I’ll be honest, I had never heard of this guy before watching the film but I highly recommend anyone giving it a watch because you will learn quite a bit. It even tackles the situation with the Israeli team at the Munich Olympics in 1972 (anyone that has seen this film or Munich will know what I mean if you don’t already from history). This is actually Leto’s second leading role and really led him into the films that I discuss below.
Basil
Interestingly, Leto made this film in exactly the same year that his band Thirty Seconds to Mars were formed. When you look at the films he starred in after this, I was genuinely surprised to see him in this kind of period drama. I’ll be honest however, it definitely takes a much darker turn than I expected. There is a twist but definitely not the one you would expect.
Side note: Christian Slater actually has a good English accent so he’s clearly been working on it since Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
Dallas Buyers Club
I went into this film with a pre-concept of who Jared Leto was going to be playing and I was definitely not disappointed. Yes, his character is male and it seems Rayon is a transvestite and my god – does he make an amazing woman! He is just the right amount of feminine. I’ll be honest, if it wasn’t for his bright blue eyes I probably wouldn’t have recognised him until a lot later into the film. The most important thing about Rayon however, is the effect he has on Ron. Completely changes his attitude towards homosexuals (unless that’s just because he’s making money from them)
Side note: I seriously do not want to think about how much weight he and Matthew McConaughey lost for this film.
Honorary Mentions
For a man that started out with at least three leading roles (the two previously mentioned and The Last of the High Kings), it is interesting to see that his career in acting took him to minor roles like that in Girl Interrupted, Fight Club and American Psycho before becoming the second Joker in my life time (I’m not old enough to count Jack Nicholson) but clearly music became the path he wanted to follow more than the silver screen.
