Jared Leto:
“When I take on a role, I’m obsessed. I want to know everything.”
(Arranged by Carmichael Phillips)
“When I take on a role, I’m obsessed. I want to know everything.”
Creating a backstory for your character and filling in the missing details of their lives is something often discussed on Acting Magazine. It’s fascinating to see how some of the most iconic actors take this practice to an extreme level.
Take Jared Leto, for example. In an interview with Backstage, Leto describes what can best be called an obsessive approach to building a backstory for his characters. He goes to great lengths to capture every little detail of his character, believing that even the smallest detail can pay big dividends when the filming starts.
Here’s a snippet from the article:
“When I take on a role, I’m obsessed. I want to know everything.”
“I want to know what my character’s favorite food is. I want to know the last time he took a shower.”
“I want to know, is he right-handed, is he left-handed? What’s his middle name? Because you never know when it’s gonna pay off.”
Leto wants to know each and every detail, down to the last time his character took a shower. He leaves absolutely no stone unturned, when it comes to adding color to the life of his character.
But what’s most fascinating is the last part of that quote:
“Because you never know when it’s gonna pay off.”
Leto’s obsessive attention to detail paid off handsomely for him in 2013. That’s when the Louisiana native earned an Academy Award for his role in Dallas Buyers Club, starring opposite Matthew McConaughey.
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