The Joker, who will be played by Jared Leto in the upcoming “Suicide Squad” movie, has graced the cover of the new issue of Empire Magazine in style that you’ve never seen before.
Though we’ve already gotten a glimpse at his neon-green hair and pasty skin, the latest issue of Empire Magazine gave us a more detailed look at Leto’s character as the Clown Prince of Crime.
With his body covered with tattoos, the famed supervillain is vastly different from the previous incarnations of The Joker.
He seems more flamboyant with his shiny purple snakeskin coat and loose Arkham Asylum sweatpants. His lips are blood red and his eyes are heavily lined with jet black makeup too.
With a walking cane, the new Joker look has been receiving mixed reactions from comic-book fans. Some said that the outfit was “utter perfection”, while the others called it “ridiculous”.
To portray a character as dark and complex as The Joker certainly wasn’t easy.
Leto opened up about playing the character for the first time through his interview with Empire Magazine. Inside the pages, he admitted that he “took a pretty deep dive” with his Method acting.
“There was definitely a period of…detachment. I took a pretty deep dive,” said Leto. “But this was a unique opportunity and I couldn’t imagine doing it another way,” he added.
But of course, there’s a price you have to pay when you play such a messed up character.
Remember when Adam Beach, who plays Slipknot in the film, told E! News that director David Ayer has hired an on-set therapist to help the actors make sure they “have (their) ground”? Well, that’s because Ayer wants to make “Suicide Squad” as real as possible.
It’s so real that Leto sent his felllow castmates some dark and disturbing gifts. He sent co-stars Margot Robbie, Will Smith and the rest of the cast a dead rat, a dead hog, and some bullets. He even ordered the actor who plays his henchman to go out, find a rose bush and spray paint them all black. He didn’t even had a single conversation with Smith outside of their characters.
For this, Leto admitted that he’s still dealing with some unintended psychological effects caused by his performance in the film. He said:
It was fun, playing those psychological games.
“But at the same time it was very painful, like giving birth out of my prick hole,” he explained.
According to Leto, he “listened to 1920s gospel music and read literature on shamans” while portraying The Joker. He further described his take on the villain, explaining that he “always get the sense that The Joker may be much older than people think”.
He added:
It’s something different. If you don’t break rules, you’re not going to strike new ground. I think I’ll be cooling down for the rest of my life.
Meanwhile, tonnes of new “Suicide Squad” images from Empire Magazine were shared online. You can check them out in the gallery below:
UPDATE (28th October, 9:37am):
A new Empire Magazine cover featuring Leto’s role as The Joker in “Suicide Squad” has arrived online.
More covers are apparently on the way and they will feature the rest of this villainous line-up.
Based on the original DC Comic of the same name, “Suicide Squad” centres on a group of supervillains who find themselves going on a most unlikely mission for a shot at redemption. However, the mission will probably kill them all.
Charles Roven and Richard Suckle producing the film, which will be executive produced by Zack Snyder, Deborah Snyder, Colin Wilson, and Geoff Johns. Ayer is directing it based on based on Justin Marks’ screenplay.
Slated for release on 5th August 2016, it also stars Jai Courtney, Joel Kinnaman, Cara Delevingne, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Common, Jim Parrack, Adam Beach, Ike Barinholtz, and Viola Davis.
Sources: CBM, Coming Soon, Screen Crush.
