Jared Leto criticised for pretending to be disabled between takes during Morbius filming

5 April 2022, 17:36

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By Jazmin Duribe

"Thank you Jared Leto so much by mimicking disabled person in a way that was inaccurate and bothersome to the set. So very cool of you to do that."

Jared Leto pretended to be disabled between takes while filming Marvel's Morbius, the film's director Daniel Espinosa has confirmed.

Throughout his career, the 50-year-old actor has earned himself a reputation for the extreme lengths he'll go to in order to get himself into character. While filming Suicide Squad, Jared (who played the Joker) admitted sending his co-stars used condoms and anal beads to "create a dynamic" on set. In an interview with Vulture, Jared also said that he lived on the streets with real-life drug addicts to prepare for his role as Harry, a drug addict, in Requiem For A Dream. Right…

In Morbius, Jared plays titular character Dr. Micheal Morbius, who becomes a living vampire after curing himself of a rare blood disease. The film was released on April 1 and has a 17% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

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There have been rumours that Jared would use crutches when limping to the bathroom while playing the disabled character on set. However, Jared's 45 minute bathroom trips slowed down production so much that Jared was given a wheelchair to use.

Director Daniel Espinosa has confirmed that the rumours are indeed true in an interview with MovieMaker. He said: "When he walks in, he is Michael Morbius. He would often play Michael Morbius prior to him becoming Morbius, so he would always come in, you know, as a fully disabled person. It would take him like 20 minutes to come to the front of the camera, because it was so hard [to walk]. This would also create pains in his body, to twist himself like that. But it was for him to remember the pain that the character had."

Jared also totally changed his body to play Morbius. When Morbius was weakened, Jared would lose weight. He then regained the weight in muscle when Morbius had grown stronger and had been cured. He added: "That's dedication. That’s what you get from Jared."

Then, during an interview with Uproxx, Daniel even defended Jared for slowing down production by pretending to be disabled. "I think that what Jared thinks, what Jared believes, is that somehow the pain of those movements, even when he was playing normal Michael Morbius, he needed, because he’s been having this pain his whole life. Even though, as he’s alive and strong, it has to be a difference. Hey, man, it’s people’s processes," Daniel explained.

He added: "All of the actors believe in processes. And you, as director, you support whatever makes it as good as you can be."

Pretending to be a person living with a disability is obviously rather problematic and the internet had strong thoughts.

The interviewer then says he must find Jared's acting antics "frustrating" but Daniel continues to defend him. "It’s more that I think the directors that don’t like actors get really frustrated about that. I think it’s really mysterious, what they do," he continued.

"Almost all actors, in general, have their own reputation of being an interesting person how he works with their characters. I think that all of them have these traits. If you want a completely normal person that does only things that you understand, then you’re in the wrong business.

"It's very hard to be able to say, 'I can take this part away and I will still get the same stuff from him.' I don’t do that. I’m more to see like, 'Hey, if you’re doing this, we have to do this.'"

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