In David Fincher’s 1999 Fight Club there is an expressive episode when Tyler Durden says, “We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars, but we won’t.” He looks at Angel Face, the character played by Jared Leto, while he says this. It is interesting to watch now, knowing that Tyler Durden was wrong and Jared Leto really became a rock star, a movie star, and a millionaire too.

The always inspired and eye-catching Jared Leto has crafted quite an illustrious career as the frontman of rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars and a charismatic actor. From the very outset of his career, Leto was know for going ‘method’, a range of acting techniques that help to bridge the gap between him and his characters. To play the role of a heroin addict in Requiem for a Dream, Leto lived with homeless heroin users; to play John Lennon’s killer in Chapter 27, he gained 62 pounds; to be Joker in Suicide Squad, he did bizarre things behind scene, for example sending Margot Robbie a love letter in a box with a rat in it.

Jared Leto made his on-screen debut in the 1994 teen drama series My So-Called Life, and has since played in nearly 50 films and series, from great leading roles to small but memorable performances in American Psycho, Girl, Interrupted, Fight Club, and many others. Leto’s most notable accolades include an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Critics’ Choice Movie Award.

Let’s take a look at his best performances, ranked.

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6 House of Gucci

     Scott Free Productions

For Ridley Scott’s 2021 biographical crime drama House of Gucci, Jared Leto appears as Paolo Gucci, the naive and eccentric grandson of the Gucci founder. Paolo wants to be a designer, but his influential family think he has no talent. Leto’s total screen time is not much, but when he appears, we forget about the real-life romance of Patrizia Reggiani (one of the best Lady Gaga performances) and Maurizio Gucci (played by Adam Driver), and watch only Jared Leto.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

Leto is absolutely unrecognizable. He is funny, touching in his own way, over-the-top but never boring. Despite the criticism of Leto’s ridiculous Italian accent and even some who say that his performance was a caricature that single-handedly ruins House of Gucci, the actor’s energy lights up the screen.

5 Chapter 27

     Peace Arch Entertainment

In the 2007 biographical drama Chapter 27, Jared Leto steps into the role of Mark David Chapman, the murderer of John Lennon. The actor excellently portrays the Catcher in the Rye fan with mental illnesses, who killed the founding member of The Beatles for no discernible (or rational) reason. Despite the film’s refusal to give any answers or clarity, an astonishing and shocking Leto performance makes Chapter 27 worth watching.

4 Blade Runner 2049

     Sony Pictures Releasing

Jared Leto has played several villains. He went deep into the antithesis of Batman (Joker in Suicide Squad and Zack Snyder’s Justice League) and one of the most obscure Marvel Comics characters (Morbius). Each of these catchy Jared Leto performances feel right at home in the worlds of sci-fi or superhero movies – but Leto’s villain in Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 is arguably the best one.

The actor does a great job playing Niander Wallace; he even temporarily blinded himself to play the blind character. “He entered the room, and he could not see at all… Everyone was in awe. It was so beautiful and powerful — I was moved to tears. And that was just a camera test,” Villeneuve told The Wall Street Journal. His bizarre, intimidating, subtle performance is utterly haunting.

3 Mr. Nobody

     Pan-Européenne

Jaco Van Dormael’s 2009 science fiction drama Mr. Nobody is a deep and beautiful tale about the infinity of possibilities in our lives. Jared Leto is outstanding as 118-year-old Nemo Nobody, the last mortal on Earth, who tells his story through flashbacks. Nemo’s tale frequently changes and turns into a multiversal reality – but the main character of the film is sure that all versions of his life are possible. “I think Jared was really the perfect actor for that role because he’s an actor of transformation… I realized, in his filmography, that he was in two or three films that I’ve seen but didn’t recognize him in, at that moment, I was sure that he would be the perfect actor to make nine different Nemos in nine different lives”, Jaco Van Dormael told Collider.

2 Dallas Buyer’s Club

     Focus Features

The 2013 biographical drama Dallas Buyers Club follows an AIDS patient, Ron Woodroof (arguably Matthew McConaughey’s finest performance to date), who started taking and selling alternative medications, because the officially approved medicine of the 1980s could not save him. Jared Leto’s character Rayon is an HIV-positive transgender woman who helps Ron Woodroof. To play Rayon, Leto dropped 30 pounds and shaved his eyebrows – but most important he lived in that character throughout the course of shooting. Leto’s performance brings a lot of sincerity, vulnerability, and emotionality to the film. For his role, the actor won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

1 Requiem for a Dream

     Summit Entertainment

Based on the Hubert Selby Jr. novel of the same name, Darren Aronofsky’s 2000 psychological drama Requiem for a Dream is one of the most brutally honest films about addiction. The movie tells the story of how drugs destroy the lives of four characters: a widow who dreams to be young and happy again, her son Harry, his girlfriend Marion, and friend Tyrone. Jared Leto harnesses the emotional depth to portray Harry, a heroin addict. This is arguably his most soulful and grounded performance.