‘Suicide Squad’ Director David Ayer “Freaked Out” By Leto’s Joker Performance

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With Jared Leto taking on the role of The Joker in this Summer’s highly anticipated film, Suicide Squad, questions of whether he could pull it off were bound to arise.  Well, with the release of the trailers for the film, it seems those questions were for naught.  But that’s not the end of the story.

In order to give his best performance for this iconic character, Leto went all-out, never breaking character on set, and even send disturbing gifts to his fellow cast members, including a dead rat to Margot Robbie and bullets to Will Smith.  His performance led to people keeping their distance from him during filming, including the director himself.

In an interview with USA Today, director David Ayer had this to say about whether or not he was “freaked out” by Jared:

Big time. The hairs stand up on the back of your neck.

Ayer continued:

I love helping actors find what methodology works best for them.  It’s like tailoring a suit — it’s not one size fits all. But it really made an event when he would show up on set. There was almost a pageantry to him, which did translate into the character and the power on screen he has.

Though never on the set with Leto, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice director Zack Snyder, who is also a producer on Suicide Squad, said:

The commitment to the role, you’re going to see that really shine through in a way that you’re not used to seeing actors in movies really go all the way with [in] every little moment and every little breath. You’re going to get taken on a journey with Jared that I don’t know that everyone’s ready for [it] but I think it will be amazing.