It’s been five years since Jared Leto made headlines for his on-set Suicide Squad antics as the Joker, but the actor/musician wants to clarify one story in particular.
In a new video with GQ, Leto broke down some of the most famous roles from his career, and he took plenty of time to downplay some of the tales that came out of the Suicide Squad production. He called the experience of playing the Joker, whom he will reprise in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, an “incredible opportunity” but said some of the stories from the set took on a life of their own.
“I never gave Margot Robbie a dead rat,” he clarified. “That’s not true.” Leto, who has been vegan for over a decade, said he truly gave her a much nicer gift in the end. “I actually gave her—I found this place in Toronto that had great vegan cinnamon buns, and that was a very common thing.”
It was reported in 2016 during production of the film that Leto had given Robbie a surprise package that included a live rat, and somewhere along the line it became misconstrued that it was dead. As Robbie toldGQ at the time, she kept the rat as a pet. “I ended up getting him like a sweet little playpen,” she said, making no mention of vegan cinnamon buns.
Leto did not, however, reveal whether he actually sent a dead pig carcass, a used condom, or anal beads to his co-stars, as E! News reported in 2016. Before the release, co-star Viola Davis recalled, “Now I’m terrified just as a person thinking ‘Is he crazy?’ But the second part was, ‘Oh shit, I’ve got to have my stuff together.’ You talk about commitment. And then he sends Margot Robbie a black rat, that was still alive in a box. She screamed, and then she kept it.”
