Jared Leto explains the creepy gifts he sent to his Suicide Squad co-stars

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Jared Leto made headlines a few months ago when it emerged that he sent some creepy gifts to his Suicide Squad co-stars, including but not limited to dead pigs, live rats, and used condoms. It's no surprise that the bizarre behaviour is getting brought back into the limelight as the film continues its worldwide press tour, and during an interview with Fox 5 Leto explained how his unique gift-giving helped him get into the Joker's headspace:

"It was interesting to do because the Joker loves to play games he loves to manipulate and that was part of the reason to do that and when you do give a gift to someone even in real life you think about, ‘What do I get them?’ ‘Who that person is to you?’ ‘What do they like?’ So that immediately started to be really good homework to me… I gave Deadshot a briefcase full of bullets. It was kind of a message, it was kind of a threat, it was kind of a reminder… I wrote every character a note – a poem. What it did was that it started me on a journey into thinking what these people are, and it was a lot of fun".

"I did give some nice gifts as well, but people don't talk about that", Leto continued. "And by the way, some of the strange ones aren't even true. I'm not gonna say what's true or what's not, but the press love to have fun with it. There were some crazier ones and some nicer ones that I gave. I did give cupcakes".

While it's no surprise to learn that a few of the reports have been over-exaggerated, there's no denying that Leto's behaviour on set was extreme. We'll find out just how out there his version of the Clown Prince of Crime is when Suicide Squad hits cinemas on Friday. 

Directed by David Ayer and starring Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, and Joel Kinnaman, Suicide Squad will open in the UK and US on August 5, 2016.

Images: Warner Bros. 

Amon Warmann
Amon Warmann

Amon is a contributing editor and columnist for Empire magazine, but is also a Film and TV writer for GamesRadar+, Total Film, and others. He has also written for NME, Composer Mag, and more, along with being a film critic for TalkSport. He is also the co-host of the Fade to Black Podcast, and a video mashup creator. Can also do a pretty good Bane impersonation.