REDisBLOOD

Jared Leto Forever

At 46, the Oscar winner, rock star, and fashion icon is so much more than a ‘90s heartthrob.

BY MICKEY RAPKIN   -   MAY 15, 2018

Jared Leto is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside a Gucci print. He’s designer Alessandro Michele’s muse, an Oscar winner for the AIDS drama Dallas Buyers Club, a Silicon Valley investor who’s had stakes in Uber and Spotify, and a Method actor who—in preparation for his role as the Joker in Suicide Squad—once sent costar Margot Robbie an actual rat. Even his house is on-brand: In 2015, Leto bought a massive former Air Force base in L.A., where conspiracy theorists believe footage was shot to fake the moon landing. But Leto’s most personal work has always been his music. His electro-synth-rock band, Thirty Seconds to Mars—written off as a vanity project back when it launched in 1998—has sold more than 15 million albums and is on tour this summer.

Your new record is called America. That’s an ambitious title.

Jared Leto: It’s ambitious, it’s divisive.… For some, it’s inspiring; for some, it’s a word filled with disappointment. And that’s what I liked about the title. It’s so subjective.

There’s no real album cover. The artwork is a series of lists.

If you take the lists together, they start to give you an idea of the culture we live in.

One of the lists is of six popular sex positions—Cowgirl, Doggy, Scissors, The Crab, etc. Do you have a favorite?

I’d have to say The Crab. I still don’t know what the fuck it is. If someone out there wants to show me The Crab, I’m game. As long as it’s not too painful.

The album feels personal. You sing, “Rescue me from the demons in my mind.” When have you needed rescuing?

Many times. Often we have to save ourselves. I’ve always put a lot of my fear of failure and my doubt into my music.

You won an Oscar and you’re selling out arenas, but you’re still plagued by doubt?

I’ve spent a great deal of my adult life working incessantly—chasing goals, chasing dreams. I don’t think I’ve had a weekend or a real day off in six months, a year. I don’t complain. But there is a cost. There have been other things in my life, personal things, that I haven’t explored. Look, you’ve got me being all confessional.

Okay, we’ll lighten up. You’re wearing Gucci on tour. How does Gucci make you feel?

There’s a certain amount of “Fuck it, let’s have some fun.” That’s what’s great about Gucci. They surprised me the other day in Rome. They made me this 1970s-era gold pinstripe suit with a giant lapel that was, like, almost shoulder to shoulder. The audience loved it. I think they’re all in on the joke at this point with me: What’s he gonna wear next? I want to have fun and make a spectacle for the audience. Left to my own devices, I’m basically wearing sweatpants and T-shirts. I could give a flying fuck.

You once described your house as the “poor man’s Playboy Mansion.” Do you have a good story about the mansion?

I don’t. I don’t know why I would have said that. Because my house is basically the most boring place—unless you love to work.

It’s a former military base. I heard the handyman quit because he saw a ghost.

Yeah, a few people have had an encounter with a ghost at the base. I don’t really pay attention to that stuff. I don’t believe in ghosts, but the place talks.

It talks?

It’s so big. It’s so windy. I’ve heard noises; I’ve heard whispering; I’ve heard people walking. I remember around Christmas, I was the only person around for a week or two. There was someone walking through the place one night. I was locked in my room. In the afternoon, my assistant came to me and said, “Do you have a guest in the guest bedroom?” I said, “No.” She said, “Oh my God, there’s somebody in there!” We had to call the police. The person was disturbed and confused. That’s happened three or four times just in the past year.

That doesn’t scare you?

I mean, it’s a little disconcerting.

You played the Joker in Suicide Squad. You were then asked to play Charles Manson. Have you ever wondered what about you screams “homicidal lunatic”?

That’s a good question. In one week, I got asked to play Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, the guy from Waco, and one other. I forget the fourth.

Maybe it’s the eyes?

I have no idea. I would absolutely die to be in a rom-com. I want to do, like, the opposite of Matthew McConaughey. My McConnaissance is 5 or 10 years of really bad rom-coms, and I only shoot in Hawaii or the Bahamas.

You’re a tech investor. What should Silicon Valley do to improve the treatment of women?

It’s not my place to speak to what Silicon Valley should do. But I believe women deserve equal pay, equal opportunity. Period. There is no room for discussion. It’s absolutely ridiculous that it’s 2018 and we have inequality that is so dominant in the business. Funding women, taking chances on women, is a great place to start. As an investor, I always look for opportunities, and I have many times backed women and start-ups. And for me, having been raised by a single mom who fought incredibly hard to make a better life for herself, it’s an easy answer.

What’s the one app you can’t live without?

I have to disclose that I’m an investor. But I’ll plug a meditation app called Headspace, because I think it’s good to put it out in the world.

I use it when I can’t sleep.

Great, yes. It takes all the pretense out of meditation. I’m glad you use it.

Do you have a mantra?

I do have a mantra.

Was it given to you by a guru?

It’s kind of like Fight Club. You’re not allowed to talk about it.