For better or worse, Jared Leto is known for his intense commitment and dedication to almost every one of his performances, often going to extreme lengths to get into character. For his Academy Award winning role in Dallas Buyers Club, that meant shaving off his eyebrows, waxing his entire body and losing 30 pounds, while he gained 67 pounds when playing John Lennon’s murderer Mark David Chapman in 2007’s Chapter 27.
Then, of course, there’s Suicide Squad‘s Joker, where the actor reportedly refused to speak to any of his fellow cast members in order to immerse himself fully into the part, and sent them various bizarre gifts including a dead hog, envelopes full of bullets, used condoms and even anal beads for some unknown reason. All that, and most of his scenes ended up on the cutting room floor.
Based on his track record, it’s hard to say what lengths he’ll go to for his next gig, but we’ve heard from our sources this week – the same ones that told us the franchise was getting rebooted from the ground up long before it was officially confirmed – that the 48 year-old wants to play a human villain in an upcoming Transformers movie. Though as of now, we can’t confirm which film this would be or what the exact role is. Only that he’s interested in boarding the series in a villainous capacity.
From what we understand, after getting the chance to play the Clown Prince of Crime again in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, signing on to headline Disney’s latest stab at Tron and bringing Morbius to life in the SPUMC, Leto has been bitten by the franchise bug and is actively looking to join another major property.
Of course, the history of human villains in Transformers has seen great actors like Frances McDormand, Kelsey Grammer and Stanley Tucci be given very little to do except ham it up and go home with a paycheck, but after going full Method so often, maybe Leto is looking to take it easy for a while and stand against a green screen without having to exert himself.
