Jared Leto Sets Next Method Acting Role
Jared Leto has set his next biopic role, as he will portray fashion icon, Karl Lagerfeld.
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Jared Leto will take his method acting to another fashion biopic with his next role as the late fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. Leto is also co-producing the project with his partner Emma Ludbrook and House of Karl Lagerfeld. Pier Paolo Righi, Caroline Lebar, and Sébastien Jondeau — close confidants of Lagerfeld throughout his life — are on board as executive producers.
Jared Leto will likely be throwing himself into this role, especially since he knew Lagerfeld and Lagerfeld’s trusted friends are on board supervising the project. This wouldn’t be the first time that Leto has played someone from the fashion world, as he played the real-life character Paolo Gucci from House of Gucci. Leto’s performance was a bit hammy in that film to match the larger-than-life personality of the real person, so he’ll likely be more subdued to play Lagerfeld.
Karl Lagerfeld passed away in 2019 and is one of the most iconic and respected designers in the modern fashion world. He was best known for his work as creative director of Chanel, Fendi, and his own fashion brand. Talking to Deadline, Jared Leto spoke about Lagerfeld saying “He was a true polymath, an artist, an innovator, a leader and, most importantly, a kind man.”
While we now know that Jared Leto will be playing Karl Lagerfeld, the exact plot of the movie is being kept under wraps. As a biopic, we can expect that it will seek to give us some insight into the revered fashion designer and his life and relationships. In addition to the news of Leto playing Lagerfeld in the upcoming biopic, Anna Wintour and the Metropolitan Museum of Art recently announced that the theme of the 2023 Costume Institute Exhibition and Met Gala will be ‘Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty.’
A prestige biopic might just be the perfect bounce-back that Jared Leto needs right now. The actor recently had some bad luck at the box office with his most recent starring role in Morbius. In addition to being memed to death, Morbius was critically reviled and flopped at the box office — twice.
Morbius starred Jared Leto as the titular vampire in Sony’s ever-growing collection of Spiderverse films. While they’ve found success with characters like Venom, Morbius was unable to achieve that same level of success. Sony is continuing their Spiderverse with films like Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter but it’s unclear if Leto’s Morbius will continue to show up with the reception the film received.
Depending on who you ask, Jared Leto’s last performance wasn’t his best either. He turned in a performance for House of Gucci that people either really loved or really hated. While some liked his theatrical performance and thought it suited the characters, others thought it was too over the top.
Along with the upcoming Lagerfeld biopic, Jared Leto has another big movie on the horizon with the remake of Disney’s Haunted Mansion. Jared Leto is playing the Hat-Box Ghost, which is a famous part of the Haunted Mansion attraction at Disneyland. Haunted Mansion is set to come out in August 2023 and stars Rosario Dawson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Winona Ryder, Danny DeVito, LaKeith Stanfield, Owen Wilson, Dan Levy, Tiffany Haddish, and Hasan Minhaj.
There’s no word on when Jared Leto’s Lagerfeld biopic will be released, but we’ll keep you updated. You can catch Leto’s most recent performance on the limited TV series WeCrashed. WeCrashed co-stars Anne Hathaway and is available to stream on Apple TV+.
