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Home / Entertainment

Jared Leto says he was 'tricked' into playing the Suicide Squad's Joker

news.com.au
18 Aug, 2016 08:10 PM3 mins to read

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Leto says "f**k 'em" to Warner Brothers. Picture / Roadshow Pictures
Leto says "f**k 'em" to Warner Brothers. Picture / Roadshow Pictures

Leto says "f**k 'em" to Warner Brothers. Picture / Roadshow Pictures

Jared Leto feels like he was "tricked" into playing The Joker in Suicide Squad.

The 44-year-old opened up to fans at a recent event for his band, Thirty Seconds of Mars.

A fan wrote in a since deleted Tumblr post:

"He (Jared Leto) was very honest about the film this weekend; his disappointment in what he's learned of the theatrical cut (he's still not seen the film); feeling sort of tricked into being a part of something that had been pitched to him very differently; thinking it would've been more artistic than what it became."

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A post shared by JARED LETO (@jaredleto) on Aug 12, 2016 at 11:42am PDT

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At the fan event called "Camp Mars", Leto was also asked if his contract with Warner Brothers includes a clause that prevents him from taking part in dangerous activities such as rock climbing which is one of his favourite hobbies.

The Oscar winner responded with, "Yes, and my answer is: F*** 'em".

Leto has openly criticised Suicide Squad in several interviews for cutting out so many of his scenes.

He appears on screen so little in fact, that Rolling Stone described his role as "a glorified walk on".

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Jared Leto in a scene from Suicide Squad playing The Joker.
Jared Leto in a scene from Suicide Squad playing The Joker.

"There were so many scenes that got cut from the movie, I couldn't even start," the actor said to IGN.

"I think that the Joker...we did a lot of experimentation on the set, we explored a lot. There's so much that we shot that's not in the film.

"If I die anytime soon, it's probably likely that it'll surface somewhere. That's the good news about the death of an actor is all that stuff seems to come out."

One possible explanation for why Leto's scenes were cut out is because of the film's classification.

Discover more

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09 Aug 08:10 PM
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10 Aug 09:40 PM

It's rated M in Australia but Leto admitted to BBC Radio 1 that he wishes it was a much more adult film.

Suicide Squad barely features Jared Leto as The Joker. He approximately only has seven minutes of screen-time.
Suicide Squad barely features Jared Leto as The Joker. He approximately only has seven minutes of screen-time.

"I think that I brought so much to the table in every scene that it was probably more about filtering all of the insanity, because I wanted to give a lot of options," he said.

"I always wished this film was rated R, and I had actually said that when we were starting. It felt like if a film was ever going to be rated R it should be the one about the villains."

Suicide Squad has proved to be a hit at the box office and is still the number one film in the US, but it was absolutely savaged by critics.

Read more:
• The best shark attack movies that aren't Jaws
• Depp & Heard's relationship timeline

As Leto said to NME though, he's in the film so briefly (about seven minutes all up) that he doesn't think the bad reviews really apply to him.

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"I've heard that there's been a very...mixed response," he said.

"It's easy to hear that, but I haven't seen the film and I'm in the film so little that that really has not very much to do with me and what I'm doing now and talking and sharing the film."

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