(Paris) It’s never too late to become a superhero: at 50, Jared Leto ticks a new box in his Hollywood career by interpreting for the first time the title role of a blockbuster, Morbius.
Posted at 9:32
Without revolutionizing the genre, the film introduces a new character to the Marvel universe. Neither a new superhero, the vein of the main characters of the comics seeming to dry up, nor quite a supervillain, à la “Venom”.
It is about Doctor Michael Morbius, a scientist suffering from an incurable disease, who will become a vampire in spite of himself and will not be able to prevent himself from killing to drink the blood of his victims.
The actor, revealed two decades ago as a junkie in Requiem for a dreamOscar winner in 2014 for his role in Dallas Buyers Clubon the first treatments for AIDS, says he felt “very free”, despite the constraints inherent in filming this kind of very big productions.
“There was a lot of improvisation on the set, and a great space to create the character,” he explained to AFP, during a meeting in Paris with the press. “Originally they wanted to use prosthetics to do the monster, but I insisted on using special effects instead. I’m happy to have done that, because it gave us a lot more freedom ”of play, he specifies.
Over the years, the ex-Jordan Catalano of the series Angela, 15 years old in the 1990s, who leads a musical career in parallel with her group 30 Seconds to Mars, does not seem to have changed, look like a teenage star with long hair. But on the screen, Jared Leto is a specialist in metamorphoses, as again recently in House of Gucci by Ridley Scott.
“Popcorn Movie”
Morbius, with his “three characters in one”, therefore had everything to please him.
“Michael Morbius is a good guy, he is sick and fragile. He’s looking for a cure for a rare disease. He is selfless and wants to help other patients like him. He ends up finding a cure, which cures him and becomes strong… until things go beyond his expectations,” summarizes Jared Leto.
To prepare for the role, “I worked with people with rare diseases. The character has a way of walking that partly mirrors that of heart attack survivors. That’s how I built my approach, I didn’t just want a cane or a little limp,” he describes.
“I really enjoyed bringing a character to life for the very first time on the big screen. There had never been a film about him before, “adds the actor who defends Marvel’s economic model, accused by some moviegoers of leveling production and monopolizing screens, but who “settles the bills” of the industry. and thus allows the rest of creation to exist, according to him.
“For me, it’s a big leap. I’ve done a bunch of smaller roles in big movies,” including two portrayals of Batman’s antagonist Joker, “and kind of made a career out of that,” he says, happy to starring “in a fun big popcorn movie” after doing “more independent movies.”
Since Requiem for a dream, presented at Cannes, Jared Leto has made a habit of never seeing the films in which he has shot. “The goal of an actor is to aim for authenticity. So I do everything I can not to have an external view of myself. Maybe that’s why my characters are so different” from each other. “That way, I never repeat myself.”