Jared Leto is a multi-hyphenate performer who has always done it all. After getting his start in New York doing commercials and other bit projects, his breakout came on the small screen with the beloved single-season classic “My So Called Life” in 1994. He went on to star in staples of 1990s and 2000s cinema like “Fight Club,” “American Psycho,” and “Panic Room,” along with recent genre tentpoles like “Suicide Squad” and “Blade Runner 2049.” He even threw Oscar, SAG Award, and Golden Globe wins in the mix for 2013’s indie “Dallas Buyers Club,” all while simultaneously touring and releasing five studio albums since 2002 with his rock band 30 Seconds to Mars.
The throughline to it all is simple: Leto always goes all-in. Sitting with Backstage to take our acting career questionnaire, he remembers his start in New York City, never having a backup plan, and his latest role alongside Denzel Washington and Rami Malek in John Lee Hancock’s “The Little Things,” in which he plays the slimy lead suspect in an ongoing serial killer investigation, Albert Sparma.
How did you first get your SAG-AFTRA card?
Back then, I was living in New York and I’d just dropped out of film school. I was studying to be a director. And I believe I got it from a commercial, which was great, and I did a few commercials early on and it was a godsend because you would shoot one day and then you would get residual checks through the year. I don’t know if it still works like that. I hope it does because it allowed a young guy like me to have some income and then to be available to go out on auditions. So that flexibility is genius and I hope that ecosystem is still there. I know a lot of things have moved online, but I hope that people still have that opportunity to do that because it was a game-changer for me.
8 Award-Worthy Films That Arrived Later in the Year Do you have an audition horror story you could share with us?
If I still had to audition for every role I did, I don’t think I’d be working because I’m not great. I guess it’s just being consistent. I think I’ve probably done some of my best and worst work in auditions, ’cause you do so many more auditions than you ever actually act in real life in the beginning. So for me, auditions are just dreadful. I get sick before them, I’m just a wreck. And if you’re doing them all the time, OK, it can get a little bit more comfortable, but I just was never interested. I had one movie that I auditioned for where they had turned the desk on its side, and we were supposed to hide behind it and shoot fake bullets at another casting director. And it was so awkward and so bad, I literally stood up in the middle of it and I said, “I just have to stop. I can’t do it. It’s like this is like a high school play that I never was in.” I just couldn’t do it. I ended up getting the job (laughs). But it wasn’t because of the audition. It’s dreadful and I feel for people that are still doing it. I used to be so tired, as well, ’cause you were running around and you’re working trying to make a living. I remember being so tired that sometimes I would try and fall asleep before the audition, outside when you’re waiting, to try to help relax me. And what I realize now, it was actually some weird form of meditation. It was just bringing myself, relaxing.
What’s the wildest thing that you’ve done for a role? Something like “Dallas Buyers Club” comes to mind….
That was one where I was reluctant to audition, so they set up a fake audition where it was like a meeting with the director—“but maybe we could read a couple of scenes!” So they kept it kind of loose to trick me into doing it. But I remember that being quite special. I was in Berlin, but I remember being in character just from the moment I logged into Skype. And that was one way I got around it. But generally, I guess I do, I don’t use this term, but what other people would say is “character work,” which I always find is a little bit harder. When I get offered a film, it takes me months, and even if I have weeks, but the difference of what I would do on the day that I got the call of interest to what I do when I walk on set is so dramatic and it changes so completely. Like, I wouldn’t really know how to audition the characters that I’m playing, like Albert Sparma. There’s nothing about Albert Sparma that you would’ve guessed if you just read the script. So I don’t know how I would’ve given an indication of what I would’ve done these days.
What is one screen performance that you think every actor should see and why?
You know what just—boom—went into my head, which is maybe not so unexpected, but I’m a huge fan of actors and performances so I can nerd out on this for a very long time. “Amadeus,” I think, is a brilliant, brilliant movie to watch for performances. I mean, talk about the physicality of a role; talk about the freedom in a role; talk about that laugh. Any movie where you can remember someone’s laugh is probably interesting to look at.
What’s one piece of advice that you would give your younger self?
I would probably say to not worry so much, that things are gonna work out for better or worse. Maybe that’s a terrible thing to say, that saying, but things are gonna be OK. I think that the stress that we put on ourselves is probably a good thing; I don’t understand why they don’t talk about that more. They should talk about that in acting class and schools. The trick is that fear and that stress that you feel is a great motivator. Fear is a great motivator. I had a lot of fear and still have my fears, but it really drove me to work, work, work, and then work some more. And if I look at my younger self, maybe I wouldn’t change it, because that fear—like, I didn’t grow up well off. I didn’t really have a Plan B, and in fact, I took great pride in not having a Plan B. I didn’t wanna give myself any opportunity to fail, and I was a big believer in hard work being the salvation. Everything went back to working hard. And I still believe if you’re willing to do the work, you’re gonna see great results.
Looking for remote work? Backstage has got you covered! Click here for auditions you can do from home!