Jared Leto Explains His Gifts To 'Suicide Squad' Co-Workers

When Suicide Squad director David Ayer wasn’t busy screaming “F*ck Marvel,” he said people “kept their distance” from Jared Leto on the set because he was always in character. The method actor extraordinaire reportedly answered only to “Mr. J” and never broke character between scenes, met with psychopaths, growled at the makeup artists (who would “play back”), and tested the laugh on strangers in public places.

This pageantry extended to giving unsettling gifts, including rumors of sending anal beads to coworkers (Yeesh.), giving Margot Robbie a live rat, leaving a dead pig filled with bullets for the rest of the cast, and giving a live snake to Jimmy Fallon just yesterday. It got so out of hand Viola Davis thought about pepper spraying him.

We’re now hearing stories of Leto’s on-set gifts so often that it’s getting to the point where I eyeroll and think, “Guess I know what I’m writing about again today.”

So guess what I’m writing about again today.

In an interview with Fox 5 DC (video below), Leto clarifies why he chose the gifts he chose:

“The Joker loves to play games, he loves to manipulate, and that was part of the reason to do that. When you do give a gift to someone, even in real life, you think about, ‘What do I get them?,’ you think about who that person is to you, what would they like? So that immediately started to be really good homework for me. What do I give Deadshot? What’s my relationship with Deadshot? I gave Deadshot a briefcase full of bullets. It was kind of a message, it was kind of a threat, it was kind of a reminder. I wrote every character a note — a poem. What it did was that it started me on a journey into thinking what these people are, and it was a lot of fun.” (transcribed by Cinema Blend)

He also clarified that some of the rumors aren’t true, but he won’t debunk anything specific.

“I did give some nice gifts as well, but people don’t talk about that. And by the way, some of the strange ones aren’t even true. I’m not gonna say what’s true or what’s not, but the press love to have fun with it. There were some crazier ones and some nicer ones that I gave. I did give cupcakes.” (transcribed by Cinema Blend)

Don’t eat the cupcakes.

Here’s Fox 5 DC’s full 20-minute interview with the cast, if you’ve got that kind of time and want to hear Jared Leto utter the phrase “Human meat is always a great gift.” No, I’m not giving a context. It’s Jared Leto. There’s your context.

And speaking of gifts, Leto has been gifting fans with something a little more welcome than live animals and alleged used condoms. He’s been posting new pictures of Joker and Harley Quinn on social media: