10 Great Actors Who Played The Worst Versions Of Characters

There are few superhero movie roles more coveted than that of Batman's iconic arch-nemesis the Joker, who in the live-action cinematic stakes has been played to perfection by Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger, and Joaquin Phoenix - the latter two even winning Oscars for their mesmerising performances.

This isn't to forget Cesar Romero's wonderfully cartoonish take on the Clown Prince of Crime from the Batman TV series, Cameron Monaghan's Joker-adjacent version on the Gotham show, nor in the voiceover stakes Mark Hamill's peerlessly creepy rendition across various games and animated outings, and Zach Galifianakis' self-aware riff in The Lego Batman Movie.

Really there's only one major Joker actor who fumbled the ball, and that's Jared Leto, who despite what certain quarters of the Internet might suggest, is indeed a great, even Oscar-winning actor.

In theory he seemed like a fine get to play a rebooted version of the supervillain in David Ayer's Suicide Squad, yet Leto's big, loud, over-the-top Joker ultimately felt like a pale shade of his predecessors, even if Leto was admittedly constrained by the rough script and how egregiously his part was trimmed down for the final cut.

From the aggressively tacky design upwards, this was a wildly miscalculated take on a beloved character, and while it feels like Leto never really got a fair shot with The Joker, he still gave us the worst major iteration yet.