Someone get Jared Leto a tissue and a counselor since quite honestly he needs something and someone to sit with him and tell him that it’s alright. Of course I’m joking since he’s likely more pissed than depressed that he got passed up on the Joker movie for Joaquin Phoenix. But one thing that he needs to remember, since even Kevin Burwick of MovieWeb alludes to this, he wasn’t that good of a Joker. He was a convincing, tattooed psychopath without a doubt, but he really wasn’t a great clown prince of crime since Heath Ledger managed to convince people with a simple walk and a few chuckles while Leto couldn’t really convince that many fans throughout the entire movie. True, he didn’t get as much screen time as Ledger but at the same time he had every chance to really nail the role, and in the process he came off looking more like the Joker’s immature apprentice than anything. Plus, the pranks he pulled on his fellow costars were simply too bizarre to be believed. I can imagine that a lot of people are going to argue the point that he made a great Joker, that he wasn’t given that much of a shot, and he was just a hot version of the Joker that didn’t look all messy and looked more like a gangster.
Did any of the people that watched Suicide Squad understand the truth behind the Joker? The mere fact that he was trying to one-up Heath Ledger, as Jacob Shamsian of Insider states, was enough to set a lot of people against him. Leto looked more like a pimp and wannabe drug dealer than a guy that would kill just about anyone if they stood in the way of what he wanted. So why in the world this unconditional love for his character in SS? It seems more likely that people simply enjoyed Leto and didn’t care what part he was playing since honestly he was a train wreck in the movie and every time he showed up a lot of us rolled our eyes and went ‘huh boy, here we go again’. The mere fact that he got upset about missing out on Joker is kind of laughable really since despite the success of the movie and the rave reviews that people are giving it, the movie really doesn’t seem to be worth much more than a single movie, unlike the sequel that seems to be circulating as a rumor. Had Leto been let into this movie it really seems as though he would have fallen short yet again of the part since he wouldn’t have been allowed to be the gangster he tried to be in SS. Plus, if you think Phoenix and De Niro clashed, at least a little, it seems as though De Niro might have made Leto cry, just guessing. But it’s also very likely that Leto would have taken this role and screwed it up in the opposite direction that his character in SS took. Instead of being crazy, out of his mind, and extremely violent he would have been an oversensitive individual that looked more like a lost puppy than a deranged and unhinged individual that could snap at any moment.
Is this to put Leto on blast? Kind of yes and kind of no since honestly there’s no need to lambaste the guy for being upset that he lost a part, but at the same time it’s kind of amusing to think that he would become so distraught over losing a part that he wasn’t all that great at. Obviously he thought he did a great job since he wanted in on Joker, but it would seem that he didn’t impress the right people and, as they say, them’s the brakes. As Susana Polo of Polygon has shown he’s pretty low on the list of the best Jokers in history, as Mark Hamill tends to make the top on a lot of lists. It’s not as though he’s hurting for roles though since Leto has been a popular star for a while now and hasn’t had any real trouble finding work. So he misses out on this role, there are probably a few others that he’s been looking into and a few other people that might want to make use of him in their movies. It’s hard to feel bad for an actor that’s lost out on a part since a lot of times they tend to screw things up for themselves by saying no when they should say yes, or yes when they should say no. Plus, even with all they go through it’s even harder to feel sorry for them when you consider that the average paycheck for a star like Leto is enough to house and feed the average family for a good length of time. So yeah, empathy and sympathy are two things that are very lacking when it comes to feeling anything for Jared Leto when it comes to the fact that he missed out on Joker.
If anything it feels good to laugh and think that moviegoers dodged a bullet on that one since there’s no telling just how much worse the Joker could get.
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