#gqspain

The actor, director, musician and ambassador of Gucci Guilty receives us at his home in Los Angeles to explain how to be a free soul in the world's most important cultural industry.

The best way to start a text, always, is to steal the first sentence from another one. Hence, I ask Jared Leto for permission to use a piece of one of the songs from his group Thirty Seconds to Mars: "Lie awake in bed at night, and think about your life. Do you want to be different?" The verse, which opens the song Beautiful Lie, could be the first thing that would cross your mind when you meet him. There is no other person like him. It's impossible. One night he decided to embrace the difference and there he stayed. Imagine that each letter, each glance, each chord, is a brick of the house where he decided to shelter forever.

Jared Leto (Bossier City, USA, 1971) is an actor, musician, director, producer and free soul. He has an alternative rock band for over 20 years; he has been a winner of an Oscar, Golden Globe and SAG; on a small table in his house he has his own head in a glass urn. "I have it; it's true. It all started after seeing that Gucci parade a few months ago — fall/winter 2019 — where the models appeared with those prosthetic heads. I thought: 'It's interesting, why not play along?', so I suggested it to Alessandro Michele [creative director of the firm]. He loved it, and we worked very hard with several engineers in Italy to get it done." That's how Jared showed up in the red carpet of the last MET gala, dressed in Gucci... and with his own head in hand. Internet burst. "Maybe one day it can be in a Gucci museum," he says.

His relationship with the brand and Michele seems already legendary. "It started after we meet in LA and see we had in common the same way of looking at things: we both dedicated our lives to create." Since then, they live a kind of "shared adventure" that also extends to the launch of several campaigns. One of them is the Gucci Guilty perfume, which Leto stars alongside Lana del Rey. "It was amazing to do it; we shot part on the porch of my house, actually." In the ad, both appear playful and close while walking through the supermarket or living with tigers. A normal day, a standard romantic date. "Well, maybe if the date is in Africa..." jokes the actor, although always maintaining a certain serious air, without forced laughs.

The truth is that Gucci is an unexpected (or not) success that has revolutionized men's fashion in last seasons. Michele has dynamited the clichés: the excess can be elegant; men and women can share their dress codes. "It's the right ideas at the right time. Now it’s the time. Michele and Gucci have decided it's time to be brave and explore. And the world was prepared to hear exactly that," Jared analyzes. It is what happens but, also, the moment in which it happens. At the end, our form is created by others.

As a result, Jared adds to his abilities the idea of influencing and creating fashion universes. Any other artistic ramification that he has not shown? "Well, maybe not that I haven't shown. I studied at the Art School. I've always loved painting, for example. I don't believe in art as one or more disciplines, but as a path." The truth is Jared can be considered a total artist and his connection to the entertainment business is like a relationship of unlikely lovers. Hollywood on one side; Jared in the other. "They don't give Oscars to people like me," he said when he received the award for his role at Dallas Buyers Club (2013). The tinsel against integrity. Jasmine and cigarettes. He would be the flower: "The conflict exists," says Jared after thinking the answer for several seconds. "On the one hand there is the business and on the other the art. But the key is to listen to yourself, your heart, your mind. What do you really want to do? A part of all this is productive, that works, and that allows you to do the other things you really want. It's a matter of balance. " He uses his position in Hollywood, the advantages of the business, to also make committed stuff and to reach others.

And he takes chances. Always. Right, Jared? "Look, I have never cared that my creative decisions implanted risks. It is absurd not to take risks. Big things, things that really can change something, always come after a brave decision, there is no other way to do it." The actor also recognizes he has never had problems with this way of being, that he has never felt "strange or trapped" by his art. There will always be "an audience that applauds you and is with you" when your creation is pure and true. With his band, Thirty Seconds to Mars, with which he has been going on stage for two decades, the same thing happens. "We are an alternative band and my brother and I always talk about the same thing: we will continue doing it as long as we have passion. That's it."

Jared Leto is shown as the perfect example of that Gentleman that still appears in the GQ title. It may not be the same today as it was 25 years ago, it may not be the same as it was in the early 50s, when the magazine began to run as we know it today. In fact, how is that gentleman of the new era? "I imagine a person capable and forgiving, who defends dignity, strength, honor, kindness. I have an optimistic view of the gentleman of the new century," he confesses. Perfect to celebrate our silver wedding.

And where was Jared 25 years ago and where do he thinks he will be in 25 years? "25 years ago I played music and acted. I had dreams. I was beginning my path of creativity. In 25 years I may be dead and don't want to regret not having lived bravely." Boom.