50 Huge Movie Characters That Were Completely Miscast
31. Jared Leto As The Joker - Suicide Squad
In The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger put in a performance as the Joker that is one of the greatest in comic book movie history, and quite rightly earned universal acclaim, with the actor awarded a posthumous Oscar. How on Earth would the next person to take on the role top that?
What David Ayer tried to do with Suicide Squad at least took a path as far from Christopher Nolan's version of the character as possible, but quite simply, Jared Leto wasn't the man to do it with.
Very much a method actor, who has been known to take things too far on set, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Leto's commitment to the role may have seen better results, but this just didn't happen. This felt like a bad caricature of the Clown Prince of Crime, one that may have had a short run in the comics before being canned. While Heath Ledger elevated the character, Leto brought him right back down.
The way he spoke sounded as if he was trying to hold in a sneeze, there was nothing menacing or particularly intimidating about him, and the laugh that was supposed to inspire fear just sounded silly. Joaquin Phoenix has proven since that there is room in the world for another good Joker, but only if the person playing him is right.