Self-proclaimed "immersive" actor Jared Leto opens up on the "difficult challenge" of playing a Program with no backstory in new sci-fi sequel Tron: Ares

Jared Leto as Ares in Tron: Ares — (Image credit: 20th Century Studios)

Jared Leto is known for diving deep into the characters he plays, whether they're a blood-sucking Marvel anti-hero, a struggling addict, or a fashion designer marginalized by his own family. With Tron: Ares, though, he had to switch up his approach, given that he was portraying a Program with little expression and zero backstory.

"I just show my true personality: empty, flat, clinical," the Oscar winner, who has previously referred to his way of working as "immersive" rather than "method", jokes when GamesRadar+ asks him how he got to grips with Ares. "No, it's an interesting question because it did pose a pretty difficult challenge for me. In some ways, it's easier when you have a lot to grab a hold of, and I am used to exploring, kind of, some of the more colorful aspects of character. Ares is all about efficiency; I think about him as, like, a stoic samurai warrior. You know, not a wasted movement?

"He's really not very expressive and probably not the first person to talk about his feelings, especially at the beginning of the film, but then he goes on a journey," Leto adds. "He starts to open up. Obviously, there's only so much time you have in a big movie like this to explore the nuances of characters, where you have to kind of explain a lot. But we did talk so much about the discovery process for Ares, and what that must have been like to have these human experiences for the very first time. That was a lot of fun. I found it really exciting."

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Directed by Joachim Rønning (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales), Tron: Ares follows the eponymous Program as he gains sentience and disobeys his ambitious "owner" Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters). The latter dreams of auctioning Ares and his fellow digital soldiers off as weapons to the highest bidders, but when Ares meets Dillinger's industry rival, ENCOM CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee), and discovers a way to make himself more human, he takes it upon himself to protect Eve and thwart his master's plans.

"When we started out making this film three years ago, or something like that, AI wasn't a part of the conversation as it is today. I'm actually very grateful for it, for having the film come out now, since it feels very timely," explains Rønning. "That said, AI is a big part of the subject matter of the film, yes, but for me, it's about Ares. It's about Ares's journey. That's what I got drawn into when I read the script for the first time. I wanted to be a part of that journey and be with him, discovering what it means and takes to be human – and having to earn it. I wanted to see the world through him because he's learning; he's coming out and he sees the world, and it's beautiful. I wanted to show that."