With the Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker movie reaching tremendous success, it’s quite hard not to think about the other portrayals of The Joker character, especially Jared Leto’s version, considering he is Phoenix’s predecessor. Ever since the Joker movie has been released, more and more controversial reports about Jared Leto’s frustration over the film have been surfacing, even suggesting that he allegedly tried to stop the film from being made. If that doesn’t turn any heads, there were many reports that claimed Jared Leto would be getting a standalone movie for his version of The Joker, along with a spinoff involving Harley Quinn. The accuracy behind these reports is rather cryptic, but the attention Jared Leto has been getting because of them has been anything but kind. Whether or not you believe these reports to be true, let’s put that all aside for one minute and ask ourselves the big question. Should Jared Leto get a second chance at playing the Joker again? Well, his take on the character didn’t exactly rub many fans the right way, but there is a case to be made and that’s exactly why he should get a second chance.
The reports that claim Leto tried to stop the Joker movie from being made make him out to bitter, but the thing is he never actually came out publicly and trashed the Joker movie. Not a single video, tweet, Facebook post, or recording that proves his resentment towards the existence of the Joker movie. However, it was confirmed that he was upset about the movie being made without him, but considering he was already contracted to appear in more films as The Joker, it’s pretty hard to blame him for being upset about a Joker movie being made without him. We sadly didn’t even get the chance to have enough time with him, appearing in 2016’s Suicide Squad for under ten minutes with little impact on the plot. There are many reports, including David Ayer’s word, that claim there are many Joker scenes that were on the cutting floor but never found their way into the film, resulting in the character basically having a glorified cameo. While Ayer has admitted that he wished he made Leto’s Joker the main villain of the film, the very limited screen time that he had failed to impress the majority of fans and made them pretty unenthusiastic about Leto’s return. Considering that every other actor had a significant amount of more screen time than Leto, it would be pretty unfair to compare performances, but if we got to see more footage of his version of The Joker, it would certainly help.
One of the biggest and noticeable flaws of Suicide Squad was the poor script. With a script that reportedly took around six weeks to write and along with several other production issues, it’s not very hard to believe why the film didn’t turn out the way we hoped. With that information in mind, many fans criticized Jared Leto’s performance and his dialogue, and while it was overall very unsatisfactory, the blame cannot fall completely on Leto. As an actor, it’s a challenge to take a script and make your character charismatic from it, but when an actor has a script that is very rushed and poorly written, it’s almost impossible to deliver a good performance. Again, it would be unfair to compare other performances to Leto’s, but every other actor who portrayed The Joker had a script that was better written and not nearly as rushed as the script he was given. If those actors were given a similarly bad script, it’s very unlikely that they would have delivered the performances that we know them for. To be blunt, no other actor could’ve done any better with that script, it was messy and the dialogue for The Joker was just plain bad. Give Leto a much better script and the chances of him delivering a much better performance would be significantly higher.
Those who are familiar with Jared Leto’s method acting should be aware of how he approaches roles. If you kept up with how he took on The Joker role at the time, you’ll know that his methods were rather strange, to say the least. His odd antics included sending his co-stars exotic items, such as used condoms and dead animals, all while never breaking character. While these methods are certainly questionable, it’s fair to say that every actor has his own way of getting into character. For Leto, he was aware on how crucial his role was and decided to go all out and hold nothing back. It’s honestly a shame that he put in all that effort, only to have many of his scenes cut, especially his more diabolical scenes that would have convinced us that he truly is a villain worth watching. Love or hate his methods, Leto is still a fine method actor, which one him an Oscar. His acting credentials are definitely satisfactory, and his dedication to the role of The Joker was serious, but he unfortunately got swept under the rug due to numerous production issues that resulted in his character being severely sidelined. An actor of his caliber deserved much better and maybe the future will give him that chance.
Final Thoughts
Jared Leto’s future as The Joker is uncertain, but with the reasons given, it’s hard not to think about what could have been. We could very much have that in the future and Leto has expressed interest in returning for the role. If he does get that second chance and has a much better script to work with, it’s highly possible that his performance would be memorable in a much more positive way. Do you think Jared Leto should play The Joker again?
Follow Us
