A mentally deranged and murderous failed clown and stand-up comedian; a 118-year-old man who is the last living mortal on Earth; a sophisticated, cynical scientist who is the creator of genetically engineered humans; a Brooklyn-born drug addict on a desperate pursuit of the American dream; and a greedy Italian businessman cast out from his billion-dollar family company. These are just a few of the personas that have lived behind the big blue eyes of Jared Leto. His enigmatic face and sharp jawline have been the ideal canvas for make-up and prosthetics that set the stage for the radical physical and psychological shape-shifting that he has been bringing to Hollywood throughout the past three decades. Each of his characters is known to take on a life of their own and consume him to the point where those around him have noted Jared himself becoming imperceptible as he takes on the role of a vessel for these characters.
When asked how he keeps himself grounded throughout the mental gymnastics that the job requires, he explains: “It’s an interesting thing because there are parts of your brain and body that don’t know the difference between acting and reality. If you’re upset and crying, your tear ducts don’t know the difference between acting or reality because you’ve fooled yourself into a sobbing heap. And there are parts of your psyche or chemicals in your brain that might get depleted in the same way as if you did in an incident in real life that was damaging. So you do donate a high intensity of psychology of physicality of emotions in a short period of time, and it can be really brutal.”
But he compares the impact and results to sports, specifically to rock climbing, which he has been practicing since 2015: “Every time you do a climb up, you take some damage. But it’s not necessarily a bad thing. It makes you stronger, it teaches you and provides needed guidance. I think that the same goes for projects. They can make an impact and sometimes it can feel euphoric or it can feel the opposite, but I think ultimately they’re both really good things to carry away from a project.”
The process for his latest project House of Gucci, in which he plays Paolo Gucci, varies in some way as it didn’t require the creation of a fictional world, but rather putting together the pieces of an already existing puzzle. “When you have a real-life person, you become a detective and you try to cobble together as many things as you can and go to the source and meet and talk with people. I went on a journey to try to capture an essence of who this guy was. I would go to the local library and Italy to scour for newsreel footage and look at photographs and study everything from the wardrobe to the way that he might have laughed or smiled, and of course Gucci was helpful.”
Although the Gucci movie and the modern-day fashion house are two entirely separate entities, learning and depicting the history of the brand for which he has been a face, and for whom he remains a muse, was quite special, especially when directed by Ridley Scott, whom he describes as one of his heroes.
Over the past few years, Leto has become known as one of the most important parts of creative director Alessandro Michele’s Gucci legacy. After meeting in LA in late 2014, the two, who are only a year apart in age, instantly made a connection. In regards to his philosophy on fashion, Leto claims not to care: “I do what I want, and a lot of times I get dressed with the lights out.” Luckily for him and his fans, Michele has turned getting dressed in the dark into its own aesthetic. He also notes that this sort of nonchalant approach adds to the fun of being on stage with an audience when touring with his band Thirty Seconds to Mars: “It changes the energy. It’s part of the production and the performance, and I think it can really light a spark for the audience.”
His band, which is gradually releasing parts of the 100 songs they made during lockdown, were originally signed in 1998 and have been going strong ever since. Leto’s rise to fame in the music world has grown adjacent to his success in Hollywood. It wasn’t so much of an overnight sensation but rather a gradual ascent as each film and song he was a part of became more popular. In discussing his present-day relationship with the concept of fame, he firstly cites a friend of his, Kanye West: “I did a documentary where I asked a bunch of people about fame and the best answer I got was from Kanye, who’s really an iconoclast. He said, ‘Fame is fucking awesome, don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t!’ Which was really refreshing to hear a view like that because of course a lot of people talk about the struggles and the intrusive nature of fame, but in some ways fame can be amazing because you can take that light and shine it on something else. There’s not only a dark side, but there’s also a beautiful side – it means your work is touching people. If you make music or a film and any type of art and no one sees it, that’s not a good feeling. Consumption is an important part of the process. You need the views and the conversation, and I don’t mean that in a needy way, I just mean it needs the light in order to grow.”
In a similarly optimistic way, Leto defines the concept of success as something he likes to remind himself is in the present: “Success is always something we’re chasing, but I think it’s important for us to understand that what’s in front of us is incredibly meaningful. I try to celebrate the small successes, whether it’s climbing a wall in Yosemite or spending time with you. We all have minute successes that we need to celebrate just as much as the big ones.”
Fashion credits:
Photographs by Willy Vanderperre
Styling by Tom Eerebout
Hair Anthony Turner
Make-up Lynsey Alexander
Manicure Anatole Rainey
Set designer Jean-Michel Bertin
Stylist assistant Anita Szymczak
Producer Simon Malivindi
Opening photograph: fluid drill jacket and trousers and leather men’s harness with horsebit detail in silver finish, Gucci.
