Only you can stop Jared Leto

Yes, I know I’ve done two emergency dispatches in a row now. I promise I’m really not trying to be the boy who cried emergency dispatch here—I was actually going to publish something completely different tonight. But some things just need to be addressed, especially if it’s a continuation of previous breaking coverage. (Update 4/21: I have since unpublished the preceding dispatch because it was bad, so now I’ve retroactively absolved myself of this sin.)

You might remember that the first emergency dispatch concerned the plague of obnoxious men giving “method acting” a spin. Well, there’s a new trick from an old offender, thanks to M*****s director Daniel Espinosa, and it’s a doozy:

There’s so much to unpack, but let’s start here: no, that is not people’s processes. That is Jared Leto being obnoxious on set, and it’s your job, Mr. Director Man, to maintain order on said set. You should have shut this down from the get-go, and while I wasn’t there, I can’t help but think it’s pretty negligent to appease your star like this. Or if you want to go up a rung: it’s pretty negligent of the studios to even cast someone this unnecessarily difficult in the first place. Sure, disabled creatives, including those who use a wheelchair and don’t get paid millions of dollars to do so, face serious barriers in this industry. But god forbid we don’t let Jared go full method during his bathroom breaks for an insipid blockbuster.

Folks, we’ve had enough of this man. I’m tired of Jared Leto somehow having a fucking Academy Award (fittingly, for a terrible reason). I’m tired of this creep being able to hide behind these stunts—there have been rumors and allegations for years detailing Leto’s sexual misconduct. I’m tired of rich, entitled men getting a pass for the sake of their “artistry.” Imagine repeatedly holding up an entire set because you refuse to break character while you take a piss. That’s not dedication to one’s craft; it’s a narcissistic attention grab.

And yes, I recognize I’m contributing to the Leto Industrial Complex by even talking about this. That’s the game: do something stupid on set, get publicity by way of people talking about the stupid shit, claim it’s for your art, rinse and repeat. But I haven’t seen any signs of anyone stopping him anytime soon—in fact, quite the opposite, if he felt so bold to even attempt this. And if there’s apparently no will from up top to free us from this Jim Jones1 of California, that revolution has to come from us grunts down below.

In the original dispatch, I essentially claimed victory by celebrating the cold shoulder the Academy Awards gave him. I now realize how naive that was. Shutting him out of the Oscars (twice) was a battle won, but we’re losing the war. He was literally presenting at the Grammys last night. So I am calling for the American—no, global—population to redouble our efforts. Stop watching his movies. Don’t see M*****s even as a joke. Stop listening to Thirty Seconds to Mars (not that anyone was doing that anyway). If you see any posters or billboards for WeCrashed, you have my explicit permission to throw eggs at them.2 

The powerful have clearly abandoned us in this matter, but I refuse to give up. I will bang this drum as long as I need to if it gets us to the promised land: a Hollywood free of Jared Leto, everyone who enables him, and everyone who follows in his footsteps. We, as a society, do not need him. The culture is better off without him and the bullshit practice that he calls acting and I call infantile attention-seeking.3 

The cards may be stacked against us, but there are signs of hope. I have seen no one important actually defending this newest stunt—besides Espinosa, who extremely obviously has a contractual gun to his head for that whole interview—so perhaps the veil is finally lifting. Chin up, my comrades. Don’t give up the good fight.