Eight years after Heath Ledger's imposing portrayal of The Joker in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, this year's Suicide Squad is bringing back the character to live-action big screen again. Jared Leto is playing the iconic Batman nemesis and he has big shoes to fill. Apart from Ledger, Jack Nicholson in Tim Burton's Batman and Mark Hamill in numerous animated ventures and video games have also nailed it as the Clown Prince of Crime.
And Leto is well aware of the burden he is shouldering. While speaking to Entertainment Weekly recently, he says:
The work that's been done on this character by so many people before me has been so impactful, so incredible, so much fun, so profound, so risky, that it's a very special thing to be asked to take on that responsibility.
The Academy Award winning actor shares that before Suicide Squad had begun its filming, he was determined about doing "something different" with his character and make it his own.
He compares reinventing The Joker with a composer's working on a hundred years old piece of music or an actor's reinterpreting a play on stage. He adds:
Directors take on great works of cinema, actors reinterpret roles, that's been going on for a great deal of time. From Scarface to Hamlet.
Jared Leto claims that such reinterpreting and redefining is "really interesting" in some ways. He explains:
It a weighty thing to do. But it's exciting. The Joker is one of those roles. He was written brilliantly when he was first shared with the world 75 years ago, or something crazy like that.
The actor concludes by revealing that he feels "really grateful" to have the opportunity to play The Joker.
We already know that Jared Leto went method for his Suicide Squad role and shocked the movie's cast and crew every now and then with his hard to swallow activities. So, he's obviously put on a great effort in reinventing the character. And we hope it pays off well when everyone watches the movie and gives their verdict.
