Can you talk about how you direct Jared as he’s method acting? How do you direct someone who is in the character of The Joker?
AYER: It’s interesting because Jared is one of the first people I cast in this, and so those conversations and the character development, how to build this character have a lot of history between us. I understand how he’s built the character. I understand what he’s doing. It’s a little bit of like I know the magic trick. I know how the rabbit is hidden in the hat before you pull it out. He’s very professional and we’ve had a lot of discussions about his journey and his mindset in what are the pieces that become this character. As far as our on-set work it’s fantastic because, a little more of this, a little less of that, a little more of this secret ingredient here and a little less of that secret ingredient.
Plus the guy’s a rock star. He’s a bona fide rock star and so he has this incredible sense of presence, innate performance but also an incredible musicality about what he’s doing. He’s really found the voice of this character and I think people are going to be surprised because even though there’s some new visual elements to the Joker, when you see him on screen in aggregate as the character, I think it’s going to be hard for anyone to ever imagine anyone else as the Joker.
Can you talk about the decision to tackle Joker, coming off of the Heath Ledger performance? Was that always your intention with this project to do that? And can you talk a little bit about coming up with the look for him? I mean, obviously you’re online and you see that it’s getting a divisive response from the tattoos.
AYER: Yeah, that’s the thing. It’s definitely, the Joker’s sort of the third rail of the DC Comics world, right? And Heath and his work is in the Pantheon. That shouldn’t preclude reinvention. It’s the most iconic bad guy in any medium. For me, what an incredible opportunity to reinvent, to have some fun with the character, and to use him in the role of Suicide Squad, and that’s what’s so fun about what Warners is doing with the DC universe now is cross-connecting these films so that different characters can enter and leave and go through these doors and have these worlds link up.
We came at it with an incredible respect for the history of the Joker, and I’ve read every freaking comic. If you look at—I grew up on the Batman TV show, the Adam West TV show. Look at the incarnation of the Joker in that, look at how the Joker has evolved. So I don’t think we should freeze him in ice and never let him evolve with us as we evolve as an audience. As far as visual development of Joker, I wanted a guy who felt like he had history and he wears his history. This is a guy with some prowess and presence in the criminal world and I want him to feel like a modern day criminal. I want him to feel like someone that you believe could emerge from today’s underworld.
Are you purposefully secluding Jared Leto from the rest of the cast?
AYER: Absolutely. Yeah. I think any director, for me, there’s always a bit of social engineering that happens. I treat every actor differently sort of according to their needs. With Jared, when he shows up he’s very much kept in isolation and then he shows up and you really feel the energy change. He’s scary. He’s a scary dude. He’s in character. I mean he’s knocking it out of the park. He’ll make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. What he’s doing is really powerful.
How much does the fact that Jared Leto is a literal rock star influence his take on the Joker? Because just look at some of his photos. There was the one hanging on the wall and he’s sneering and I’m like, “Oh my God. He’s Billy Idol.”
AYER: I just think it’s a sense of he understands how to drive a crowd and that there’s just something very, very real and very honest about having that ability he’s able to bring to the character. This guy isn’t an introvert. This is an extroverted Joker. This is a Joker who really puts himself out in the world and is very socially adept and uses his presence. Jared is definitely drafting on his own abilities in that regard.
