Morphing Into ‘Morbius’: How Jared Leto Sank His Teeth Into Marvel’s Vampire Anti-Hero

variety.com:

Jared Leto has done the comic book thing before.Playing the Joker in the 2016 film “Suicide Squad” and again in Zack Snyder’s “Justice League” is a memory the 50-year-old actor looks back on fondly. “That role was an opportunity of a lifetime,” he says. “And I got a chance to do it twice.”Getting to dramatize a villain as ubiquitous as the Clown Prince of Crime is delicious, but it doesn’t always leave a lot of new ground to break.

Leto’s turn as the Joker came after Heath Ledger (in 2008’s “The Dark Knight”) and before Joaquin Phoenix (in 2019’s “Joker”), who both won Oscars for their interpretations.So Leto was eager to get an offer for the lead role in “Morbius,” a superhero tentpole set in Sony Pictures’ Universe of Marvel Characters, whom no actor has ever played in a movie or a TV show.

Channeling the part of Spider-Man’s eventual foe, a living vampire, would allow Leto to really sink his teeth into a bad guy with a blank slate. “I loved that it was the very first time this character was going to be on screen,” Leto says. “I’ve always been interested in transformation, and this was a way to explore that territory in a big Marvel film.

It was impossible to say no.”After a series of pandemic-related delays, “Morbius” will finally open in theaters on April 1. Sony executives are hoping the movie, which cost $75 million to produce, will turn a profit by continuing the box office hot streak of comic book adaptations, including “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “The Batman,” starring Robert Pattinson.“If it doesn’t work out, we have a good excuse,” Leto says with a grin over a lengthy Zoom conversation. “We waited too long.”The long-anticipated arrival of “Morbius” in theaters represents a.