10 Actors Who Took Method Acting Too Far

Not every film on this list could be a classic, and indeed it wouldn’t be a list of method acting performances worth its salt if we didn’t throw in at least one case of an actor throwing good after bad and committing wholeheartedly to a role which really didn’t deserve the effort. Enter method actor extraordinaire and king of inconsistency, Jared Leto.

Sure, Joaquin Phoenix recently wowed audiences and earned an Oscar for his phenomenal performance as Arthur Fleck in last year’s Joker, and Heath Ledger before him was awarded a posthumous statuette for his transformative take on the role. But those performances were featured in films which, some critical quibbles aside, are broadly seen as, well, good.

Not so David Ayer’s 2016 Suicide Squad, a DC comics ensemble film which was resented by critics upon its release. The movie was widely hated as an incomprehensible, ugly mess, the victim of inconsistent tone, a directionless plot, and vicious re-cutting which rendered it even less legible than it might have been.

Jared took on the iconic role with panache, sending the cast a hog carcass after shooting as a “gift”, sending co-star Margot Robbie a live rat for the same reason, and even sending anal beads, dildoes, and used condoms to the production just to screw with them. Shame he didn’t put as much effort into the actual onscreen acting, really.