David Fincher Interviews Jared Leto (2004)
His handsomely brooding face may have taken center stage when he first emerged as the mysterious Jordan Catalano, the grungy object of Claire Danes’s wish-fulfillment fantasies, on the mid-1990s cult TV show My So-Called Life, but the years—at least onscreen—have not been kind to Jared Leto. He was pummeled by Edward Norton’s anticonsumerist everyman in David Fincher’s Fight Club (1999); Christian Bale, as Medecade mass murderer Patrick Bateman, hacked him up with an axe in Mary Harron’s American Psycho (2000); a nasty abscess borne from an out-of-control heroin addiction caused him to lose an arm in Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream (2000); and he was charred in a backdraft fire in 2002’s Panic Room, again under Fincher’s direction.
But while calamities tend to befall Leto in his movie life, the trajectory of roles he has taken are all part of the larger puzzle that is the actor himself. Born on a commune, he grew up bouncing around with his photographer mother from Alaska to Florida to Louisiana and Wyoming, followed by stints in Haiti and Brazil, before landing in New York as a teenager.
In Alexander, Oliver Stone’s controversial new epic about famed conqueror Alexander the Great, Leto plays Hephaistion, Alexander’s close friend and lover, joining a cast of Hollywood heavyweights that includes Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins, Val Kilmer, and Colin Farrell in the title role. Fincher caught up with the 30-year-old actor in South Africa, where he was completing work on Andrew Niccol’s upcoming gun-running thriller, Lord of War, and preparing to hit the road with his rock band, 30 Seconds to Mars.
DAVID FINCHER: So, dude, tell me about your pursuit of rock stardom. It just wasn’t debauched enough, so now you’re back to acting?
JARED LETO: Why? Are you disappointed that I’m making movies again?
DF: No, I’m just curious.
JL: Well, I took a lot of time off—I think I made three movies in five years—so now I’m just going through a phase where I’m working more. But I’m still doing the music thing. I just finished about 80 percent of our second record [the follow-up to the group’s 2002 self-titled debut]. It comes out in March on Virgin Records.
DF: Are you going to get the support this time—
JL: That we so badly deserve? With the first record, we had a record company that was falling apart, and as everybody knows, the industry is kind of in its version of the Great Depression right now. We were casualties of all that. But, you know, we did sell more than 100,000 records and toured everywhere, playing more than 350 shows, and we had an incredible time doing it. So, in those terms, it was all a success. What are you up to, by the way?
DF: I’m in the first trimester of my gestation on the next film. I’ve been trying to put together this Benjamin Button movie. [bird calls in background] What is that?
JL: Those are some really weird African birds.
DF: C’mon, Jared, are you allowed to keep sheep in your house?
JL: Well, it’s a secret, so don’t tell anybody. [laughs] Those fucking birds wake me up every morning. So, you’re going to make a movie called Benjamin Button? With a title like that, I can’t tell if it’s about a stuffed animal or a pedophile.
DF: Well, it’s both. [laughs] No, it’s based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story [“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”], and we’ve been working on it for about five months, trying to get the budget down to something that two studios can swallow.
JL: I can’t believe that I actually made another movie after Panic Room before you did.
DF: And you made a record, and went on tour, and had a life. But I also went to a premiere and did a DVD commentary, if that counts.
JL: I didn’t even get to the premiere of Panic Room. I’m such an asshole.
DF: Well, that’s part of your mystique.
JL: It’s not even mystique! I was probably in Grand Rapids, Michigan, playing with the band at a bowling alley. You know, that’s my exciting life.
DF: So, tell me about Alexander. I have friends who worked on the movie who are extremely high on it, and they’re not drug-addled and deluded. How did you get roped into this thing?
JL: Well, I met with Oliver Stone, and then had a reading, which was … uh … interesting.
DF: Oh, do tell.
JL: At one point during the audition, the casting director, Billy Hopkins, had his head in my lap. I was whispering sweet nothings to him, so it was kind of ridiculous in a way. It also sort of felt like we had a moment together—and we’ve been dating ever since. [laughs] But it was good because I got the part. The script was unbelievable. Oliver, man—the guy is an incredible writer. There’s no doubt about that. He was one of my favorite directors growing up, and I would have died to do anything with him. Going in and meeting with Oliver, talking about this project, I felt like I did when I met you, when you were casting that little role that I did in Fight Club.
DF: But you didn’t have to travel around the world for that.
JL: I just had to show up with white eyebrows and say about three lines in the whole movie.
DF: And you had to go through six hours of makeup and then get pummeled. You don’t get pummeled or disfigured in Alexander, do you?
JL: Well, yeah, I kind of do. I’m trying to keep that trend up.
DF: Then I’ll be there opening night. As long as Leto gets disfigured, I’m there.
JL: Bastard. [laughs] But I was really psyched to do Alexander. I had the audition, and then Oliver went around the world, seeing other people for the part. I kept hearing that I was the top choice for the role, but then I would find out that he was still auditioning guys in London. It was like that for a month or two. But it ended up happening, and we had this crazy adventure in Morocco, Thailand, and England.
DF: How was Morocco?
JL: It was bizarre, man. I’ve done a lot of traveling, but when you’re in Morocco, which is a Muslim country, as moderate as the culture there is, it’s still really intense. It is so different. But I fell in love with it. Working on Alexander in Morocco, I felt like John Malkovich in The Sheltering Sky [1990]. I kept thinking to myself, “You know, I could live here for a while.” The sunsets, the mint tea, the call to prayer that echoes through the whole country—it’s all eerie at first, but I grew to love it. It’s so beautiful, just incredible. I mean, you give my grandmother a camera over there, and she would come back with amazing pictures.
DF: So, Val Kilmer. Do tell.
JL: I’ll tell you the strangest thing about Val Kilmer: He is so unbelievably nice. He’s the nicest guy to work with.
DF: So his evil is hidden?
JL: [laughs] You know, people have heard stories about Val, but everybody on the set, all the other actors and stuff—we all loved him. He was great. He was a joy to work with, and he kicked ass in his part. It’s odd because he’s playing Colin’s father. When you first think of Val, you think he might be too young to pull that off, but it really fits.
DF: He’s got a weight, a presence onscreen.
JL: He’s a great actor, hands down. He wasn’t in Morocco for three and a half months like the rest of us were, but when he came in and started working, he was great. It was really fun.
DF: And you liked Colin Farrell?
JL: Colin’s cool. He’s almost like an Irish Brad Pitt. The first time I met Brad, I was, like, wanting him to be my best friend because he was so nice and cool and easygoing and funny. Colin has a lot of those same qualities. But he also works his ass off, too. I never saw that guy forget a line. He plays hard, but he works even harder. He really nailed it with this movie. Overall, making Alexander was a really solid experience. It was an adventure. It wasn’t like when we made Panic Room—I actually had some fun this time.
DF: [laughs] Okay, we can turn the tape off now.
JL: No, it’s just that I don’t usually enjoy acting,
DF: Yeah?
JL: I really don’t. I hate acting, to tell you the truth. But there are moments when I’ve enjoyed it, and I had a really good time on Panic Room because as an actor working with you, you know that no matter how big a fool you make of yourself—like I did in that movie—you’re going to be okay because you’re in good hands.
DF: You don’t know that.
JL: Well, you are because you’re working with a master! [both laugh] Oliver is the same way: You know at the end of the day the guy’s not going to make a bad movie. The actors are always good, and his movies always look incredible. They’re always engaging and compelling, so that’s a big relief. It let’s you relax a little bit.
DF: Because you know that you’re part of a bigger thing. His movies are extremely elaborate both emotionally and narratively. I remember going to see JFK on Christmas Day when it came out in 1991 and feeling like I wanted to see it again. It’s not often that you feel that way after sitting through a three-hour movie. [laughs]
JL: Yeah, Oliver’s got the goods, man.
DF: So, now you’re working on this Andrew Niccol movie?
JL: Yeah, it’s called Lord of War, with Nic Cage and Ethan Hawke. Nic plays an arms dealer, and I play his brother. It’s a really cool script, one where you read it and go, “Wow! I’ve never seen this world before.” It’s about these guys who are selling weapons to rebels in wartorn countries, and at the same time they’re also selling them to the governments that the rebels are fighting. A lot of the movie takes place in Africa—some of these African countries have just been devastated by war. It’s really an independent film. Even though it was huge, Alexander was also an independent film in a way because it wasn’t just produced by one studio—although Warner Brothers was part of it.
DF: So, you’ve already done like a $150 million independent movie in Alexander, and now you’re working on this other big-budget independent movie. But it sounds like they’re both kind of out there, so you’re not just taking the money.
JL: Well, I’ve never ever made choices based on anything but creative reward and being challenged. You know, I’ve made some mistakes that I’m not proud of, but for the past five or six years, I haven’t been screwing around.
DF: It’s funny because whenever you take the money, people want to punish you for it, and then you just go, “Oh, no! I was trying so hard to be part of that club.”
JL: And then you learn that that club is not for you. Sometimes I think that instead of doing three lines in a movie like Fight Club, I could have been off doing some cheesy-ass piece-of-crap movie and getting paid a ton of money and buying my grandma a house or something. But I could never do that. I have to tell you, though, I’m going to become a giant movie star just so you can cast me in your next movie. That’s the only reason I’m doing any of this: so you will cast me in a movie again, and then [video director] Chris Cunningham will be able to finance a movie around me, and I’ll be able to work with anyone I want.
DF: So, how’s your personal life? I’m asking because I recently saw you on the cover of Out magazine, and I was like, “Finally!”
JL: [laughs] The character I play in Alexander, Hephaistion, is gay, and Alexander is sort of an iconic figure to a lot of gay people because there was a lot of speculation that he was homosexual. Society was very different at that time: If you felt like getting it on with a guy, it was all good as long as you produced an heir and had a family at the end of the day. Those were the responsible, manly things to do.
DF: It was a freer time.
JL: The golden days.
DF: So, when you’re done with Lord of War, you’re going to finish your record. Then you’re going to give the movies a rest?
JL: I don’t know, man. There’s another film I’m doing after this called Awake.
DF: Will that be shooting in Los Angeles?
JL: No, New York.
DF: But you’re still living in L.A., right?
JL: You know, I’m there so seldom. I was on the road for a long time and living out of a bus. Then I was gone for six months doing Alexander and off for three months working on Lord of War.
DF: Did you like being on the road?
JL: Yeah. I love traveling. I also love the process of making movies more than the actual acting, which I’ve told you I don’t enjoy so much. I had a good time with you working on Panic Room, but it was a different scenario.
DF: Well, I think that’s probably because you were working in this extremely rigorous context. I mean, shooting for 90 days in the same friggin’ house—you really have to be aware that you’re not doing something that’s completely different from what you set out to do.
JL: I think it’s about the quality of the people you’re working with, too.
DF: Well, shucks, man. Right back at you. [laughs] But I do want to see you again when you have the time.
JL: I really don’t. I’m completely booked.
DF: Ouch, man.
JL: Yeah. [laughs] And, frankly, I think we’ve had enough of each other.
David Fincher is the director behind such films as Seven (1995), Fight Club, and Panic Room.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Brant Publications, Inc. COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group
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