Jared Leto names the most beautiful black-and-white movie ever made: “It looks like it’s a photograph”
Jared Leto is a fascinating human being. He’s the lead singer of a successful rock band, has been in some of the most famous movies ever made, and he’s even got an Oscar under his belt. Even so, a lot of people cannot stand him. He is regularly made a figure of fun by fans and critics, not helped by his insane policy of Method acting on the set of Suicide Squad and his laughable ‘Italian’ accent in House of Gucci. Also, Morbius. Case closed.
Still, based on his appearances in the likes of Fight Club, Requiem for a Dream, and Blade Runner 2049, he clearly knows a thing or two about the movies. He’s proven himself to have a wide range of acting interests, happily appearing in big blockbusters and dinky indie movies, and, as was revealed in a conversation with Variety, he’s a fan of the technical aspects of moviemaking too.
As part of their ‘Actors on Actors’ series, the publication paired Leto up with John David Washington. Leto had just appeared in John Lee Hancock’s The Little Things, while Washington was out promoting Malcolm & Marie, a two-hander with Zendaya that had been produced in secret during the pandemic. “First of all,” Leto told Washington. “You guys shot on film, it’s black and white, and I have to say maybe one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful, black-and-white films I’ve ever seen. I mean, those shots are just gorgeous. It looks like it’s a photograph.”
Malcolm & Marie came about when Covid-19 shut down production on the TV show Euphoria. Zendaya and director Sam Levinson came up with the idea of doing a feature that could be made while following pandemic guidelines. It was shot entirely in one location, a large private home in California, and no more than a dozen people were allowed on set at any given time. Despite good reviews for its two leads, the movie as a whole failed to capture people’s imaginations due to a lacklustre script and stilted staging.
For Washington, the decision to make the movie in monochrome had a special significance. “When I found out they were shooting it in black and white,” he told Leto. “I got excited because I’m just thinking about the historical value for African Americans and black-and-white film, to really celebrate people that look like us in black and white, in a story like this. I leapt at the chance.”
Despite clearly being a fan of them, Leto has never appeared in a major black-and-white picture. Ironically, he was part of the cast of the 1999 movie Black & White, which starred Robert Downey Jr, Brooke Shields, and Claudia Schiffer. It was shot in full colour, most of its dialogue was improvised, and, sadly, it received absolutely abysmal reviews.
Washington also reflected on the pressure of being the only major movie to have been filmed at that time. “We were doing this for the industry, in a way,” he said. “We felt like a lot of the industry was looking at us – how were we even going to get this off? And that was the beauty of the entire bond, was knowing that we had to depend on each other.” Despite its disappointing reviews, Malcolm & Marie proved that films could still be made, giving the business hope during one of its darkest hours.
