JARED LETO (inset, photo by Ruben V. Nepales) plays the HIV-positive transvestite Rayon in ‘Dallas Buyers Club’
Los Angeles – “I love the Philippines!” exclaimed a smiling Jared Leto when he found out I was a Filipina. “My band, 30 Seconds to Mars, played there a couple of years ago and it was a great show!”
Jared, donning shoulder-length straight hair and looking slim, revealed to us that he wanted to go back to Manila. “There was heavy rainfall when we performed there but we had a great time,” he said of his 2011 gig at the Mindanao parking grounds of Trinoma where he performed an acoustic version of “The Kill” under the rain.
That is the kind of actor he is too. Nothing gets in his way to deliver a great performance. He lost 30 pounds for his HIV-positive transvestite role as Rayon in the Jean-Marc Vallee-helmed drama, “Dallas Buyers Club.”
Based on the true-life story of Ron Woodroof, a man from Dallas diagnosed with HIV in 1986 and portrayed by Matthew McConaughey, the movie tells of how Woodroof began smuggling alternative medicine with Rayon and created the Dallas Buyers Club, a club that provided its paying members with alternative treatments to HIV.
Jared, who was away from movies for years when he decided to concentrate on his band and his music, explained his drastic transformation for the role. “Losing the weight was just one part of it,” he said. “I am sure Matthew told you about his weight loss too (he lost 50 pounds). I had done it before for a film called ‘Requiem For A Dream.’ And I had gained a lot of weight for a film called ‘Chapter 27,’ about 60 pounds, which was almost a 90 to 100 pound difference between that film and this one.”
“But it’s great because it’s a tool,” continued the 41-year-old actor. “It changes the way that you walk, the way that you talk, the way that you laughed, and the way that people treat you. It can change your choices in a scene where you may speak a little slower and quieter because you do not have as much energy or you lean on a table for support. So it is kind of an essential thing. It also provides a lot of fragility and that I thought was essential, especially when you are playing someone who is addicted to drugs and dying of AIDS.
“The weight is one part of it. Of course, there were the heels and there was the waxing of the entire body. You may feel my pain out there. So it was a journey. It was an adventure and there was a lot of preparation and a lot of work. I enjoyed it quite a bit.”
Jared, who was born in Bossier City, Louisiana, admitted that he grew up poor but had a mother who encouraged his love of art.
He said, “I love both music and acting. I was an art school kid and I dropped out after my third year at the Philadelphia University of the Arts studying painting. I always thought I was going to be a painter. It was either a painter or a drug dealer. But don’t tell anybody that.” He laughed.
“To give you a little bit of my background how I grew up, very poor, but I wanted to be a painter or a fine artist,” he revealed. “Then I took a photography class; then a film class. I fell in love with film. I switched my major and I lasted three years, and then I ended up dropping out. I was at the School of Visual Arts in New York City but my background is from film.
“I was studying to be a director and I thought I would drop out, get a job as an actor and that would help me get a job as a director. That was my big plan because it was so hard to get a job as a director. But I have always loved film and I think that comes from the same place if you are writing or taking a picture. I think we are all doing the same thing. We are making something out of nothing. We are sharing something with the world. We are using creativity and our imagination. They are really wonderful things to do.”
He continued, “I have a lot of gratitude to be able to do them all. I never was ambivalent about acting or filmmaking. I love it. I did not know five years had passed. It just happened. I remember I worked with Terrence Malick, who is an incredible filmmaker. I am sure you have met him before. What a guy! He is an incredible person, a very gentle soul. But he took 20 years off between movies and I took five or maybe six. And I asked him about it one time and he said, ‘You know, time just went by’ and I felt that way. Time just went by. But I am glad I am back. I’m back!”
Growing up poor, so does he have a mansion now, we asked.
Jared laughed and said, “I don’t make films that often and I am a musician which means that I am not rich. I do it for the love of it and I do not have a mansion. But I do have a house, which is incredible because I never grew up in a house. We lived in apartments and hippie communities, on the beach or on the street. I have slept on rooftops, in cars, and in the bushes even. And that is an exclusive! I have never told anybody that before. So that is my confession!”
Email the writer at janetrnepales@gmail.com for your comments or questions. Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/@jrnepales.
Jared Leto on ‘Dallas Buyers Club,’ growing up poor and being in PH
Source: Mb.com.ph (September 22, 2013 at 10:00PM)
Continue...
No comments:
Post a Comment