7 Little Known Tics That Defined Jared Leto's Joker Performance

6. He's A Space Invader

Leto's co-stars not knowing what to expect from him wasn't the only reason they're visibly quite shook up by his interactions - it also comes down to the way the actor approached the character's sense of awareness.

In all of his close interactions, Leto casts off all respect for personal space, making himself seem more intimidating and more perversely intimate by dialing up his touching and space invasion. He looms large over Common's gangster creepily (making himself seem larger than the far bigger man), he's extremely tactile with Harley of course, as it's part of his abusive agenda, and it comes to a head when he meets Officer Griggs.

The unfortunate victim of the Joker's manipulation (played by Ike Barinholtz) gets the full experience: Joker sits on his lap, cradles his face and it's all just on the edge of seductive. It's the same approach he took to "turning" Harley to helping out too and the parallels are impossible to shake.

Barinholtz told Howard Stern (via New Zealand Herald) that Leto actually went further than was shown in the final film too:

“It was a very fun movie to work on…He was in character the whole time. At first I was like, ‘That’s lame.’ But then you think about it, and like, I want the Joker to be in character. I do this scene with Jared Leto and he’s supposed to be intimidating me. He comes in, he’s the Joker, and he starts squeezing my t*ts.

He’s like [panting and moaning] ‘You’re a big guy’. This is while we’re filming. Then he grabs me and kisses me. On the mouth, full kisses me. I thought, OK, I’m just gonna go with it. But then he’s like, [panting and moaning again] ‘Did someone piss their pants?’ I’m like, now I did because you said I did!”

Some of the behind the scenes footage also shows him more closely touching Harley Quinn in an alternate version of the helicopter scene and it's very clear it's part of his performance.