Few actors have had their creative process as intensely examined as Jared Leto. The widely reported gifts of anal beads and used condoms are a little… intense, but Leto tells us that there really was no other way to prepare to player a character like the Joker. “Yeah, what do you think?” he asks. “I don’t use the term ‘method’ - it’s kind of a polluted word. What I try to do is to focus and commit as much as possible so I can do the film, the story, the character and everybody else justice. That’s it.“
"I think that the Joker probably feeds off resentment, and the way that people are loving to laugh, the more uncomfortable [he gets],” he continues. “The more resentment, the more conflict, and the more enemies that he gets, the more fulfilled he feels.”
If that was his goal, then he went about it the right way, starting with Robbie. The relationship between Harley and the Joker is one of DC’s best loved; a lopsided love story that has been played in varying degrees of light and dark. Harley loves her Mr J, and even though her Puddin’ might not share those feelings to quite the same extent, he definitely feels… well, possessive is probably the right word. While Smith got a relatively formal box of bullets, Robbie was given more personal gifts, including a live rat. “I was… surprised.” she tells us. “Yes, there’s an understatement!” laughs Smith. “You shut that box so quickly!” exclaims Delevingne.
“We were in the rehearsal room, so everyone was [surprised]” Robbie remembers. “I screamed because I didn’t realise it was alive! ‘Guys, what do I do with it?’ Everyone was like 'I don’t know, I guess you have to kill it?’ 'What?! No!’"
Although the gifts ranged from the almost cuddly (a pet snake) to the confrontational (those aforementioned anal beads), Robbie tells us that she never had a problem with Leto’s special deliveries. "I loved that stuff. I mean, Jared was doing half of my work for me. Harley’s very much part of this relationship, and to have such commitment on the other half made my job a thousand times easier and a thousand times more fun. It keeps you on your toes, I don’t know what’s going to happen when we go on set, I have no idea what he’s going to do. It’s so exciting to act opposite that."
"It really brought [things] to life for us,” adds Delevingne. “Going from us rehearsing from the page to going to such visceral things [that] you can feel and touch, in your face, like… holy shit! It’s like interactive theatre.”
Indeed, one gift from Leto is credited with forging the Squad itself. While Ayer got the actors working on bonding and developing their characters, Leto stayed separate. However, on one occasion he did make his presence felt, as Jay Hernandez remembers. “One of Joker’s henchmen came into the rehearsal space, and when that happened it galvanised us; something happened,” he tells us. “The Suicide Squad was born!” laughs Smith.
“He just burst in. 'What the fuck? I know we’ve got security outside!’"
"He had a dead pig, and threw it down on the table and said, 'Here’s a present from Mr J,’” Kinnaman picks up. “He had the slit throat with the tongue sticking out,” interjects Delevingne. “And me and Jai looked at each other like, 'We’ve got to do somethig, man!”’ laughs Kinnaman. “He’d already walked out so we ran down the corridor and dragged him back into the room. He was like 'Guys, it’s over, it’s over.’ 'It’s not over!’ We pulled him in and everybody jumped him. We tied him, took a picture, put the pig around his shoulders and put an apple in its mouth.”
“That was [Leto’s] gift, and it was really special and mind-blowing and fucking awesome,” concludes Hernandez. “When it happened, it’s like everybody turned and we were instantly like, what are we doing? What the fuck are we doing?” “'We’ve gotta retaliate, we’ve got to do something’” remembers Robbie. “It changed everything.” “The final drop in the cauldron,” adds Delevingne gleefully.
- SciFiNow (Issue 121)