No one can ever accuse Jared Leto of being lazy when it comes to his work.
Throughout his career, which spans nearly three decades, the actor has tackled roles in movies like The Suicide Squad and Dallas Buyers Club. Both of those projects varied in seriousness, but Leto approached each role with the same intensity he gives to every character he takes on.
And that intensity is evident in his decision to embody his roles on and off the set.
In the Darren Aronofsky film Requiem For a Dream, Leto dropped 25 pounds for his role as Harry Goldfarb, a heroin addict. At the time, the star told The Telegraph it was “painful” to lose that much weight, recalling, “I was in a constant state of hunger. I started fainting when I was on the set.”
Eventually, he found himself in the hospital, where he learned his “bone marrow dropped 400 points.”
Even so, the actor said it was a “rewarding” experience. “I don’t know if you’ve ever fasted, but there were a couple of moments towards the end where I had hallucinations,” he told the newspaper. “I’d look up at the sky, and I’d get a feeling of complete serenity.”