Jared Leto discusses how music informs his acting performances
Jared Leto is something of a phenomenon. As the Hollywood hopes of Elvis Presley and the rockstar dreams of Johnny Depp could attest, it’s difficult to balance fame in the realms of music and acting simultaneously. Unless you’re a musical actor like the late Olivia Newton-John, it would seem that the cross-over is tiring and isn’t often well-received by fans and critics.
However, some two decades before Harry Styles’ surprising film debut in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, Jared Leto was making a name for himself both as an actor and as the charismatic frontman of Thirty Seconds to Mars alongside his brother, Shannon.
Thirty Seconds to Mars was formed in 1998 after Leto had achieved widespread acclaim as an actor for his lead role in Steve James’s Prefontaine the year before. With appearances in blockbusting films, including Fight Club, American Psycho, Requiem for a Dream, Panic Room and later, Dallas Buyers Club and Suicide Squad, the Louisiana-born actor impressively managed to sustain his double life as a rock musician.
In an interview published in The Talks, Leto explained how he manages to hold his acting and musical worlds apart as two symbiotic halves. First of all, he discussed how he is carefully selective in his acting career. “I try to find projects that I’m really passionate about, incredibly motivated to do,” he said. “I never really go to work just to work, I have quite a busy life outside of movies so I am very fortunate about that, and I think that helps me be a little bit more discerning when it comes to choosing roles, if that’s the right word to use. I think that the films that I do and the characters that I play oftentimes are pretty challenging, so when I’m done, I need some time to recover.”
Continuing, Leto discussed how his film roles tend to have a profound and positive impact on his life. “It’s safe to say that every film that I’ve made has changed my life in some degree,” he said. “And although you never know what to expect when you make a movie, I knew Requiem [for a Dream] was going to be special from the minute I read the script — and also because of Darren Aronofsky. There was just a lot of promise there, and we all went on a journey together that was incredibly intense. It’s a film that left its mark on me, and I’ll always be grateful to Darren for Requiem for a Dream, for the experience of the movie. It was absolutely phenomenal.”
Later, Leto was asked whether his musical exploits fulfilled him in the same way. “These two paths are pretty different, but they both come from a creative place, I guess that’s the commonality,” Leto pondered in response. “I try to keep the music separate, but I have had to spend time on both occasionally because of deadlines. It’s not a perfect way to work, but I have to do it a few times.”
“I think they influence and affect each other only in the way that you learn something, and you can apply it to something else that you are doing,” Leto added. “But being on stage, at least to date, I’m not playing a character, I’m probably more myself than I ever am because you are up there with total abandon. When we are on stage, we always try to be in a place of total freedom, and that’s a very revealing place. I’m not writing songs from the point of view of a character, although I’ve explored that a little bit — who knows, maybe we will do a Ziggy Stardust thing on the next album”.
Watch Jared Leto accept the Academy Award for his outstanding supporting role in Dallas Buyers Club in 2014 below.
