Entertainment Weekly has posted an interview with Dallas Buyers Club star Jared Leto along with the new picture of him in the film as Rayon, offering a slight bit of visual evidence as to the transformation he went through for the role.
He tells the mag he stopped counting how much weight he lost “somewhere between 30 and 40 pounds” and that he remained in character from the first day he stepped on set to the last. No surprise to me considering I moved him straight to the top of my Best Supporting Actor charts shortly after seeing, and loving, the film at the Toronto Film Festival.
Leto has a supporting role in the film (though many will argue he steals every scene) opposite Matthew McConaughey who plays real-life Texas electrician Ron Woodroof, an ordinary man who was blindsided by being diagnosed as HIV-positive and given 30 days to live. Ron’s path to a hopeful recovering despite the lack of medical assistance in the U.S. soon becomes intertwined with Rayon, a cross-dressing gay man and the last person Ron would ever imagine he’d end up being friends with.
Here’s a snippet from my review:
[Director Jean-Marc Vallée] accomplishes just this with a performance from McConaughey almost assured an Oscar nomination and another by Jared Leto as the aforementioned cross-dresser, Rayon, a character and performance that compliments everything McConaughey delivers as Ron. The two represent an impossible, unexpected match made in heaven.
Just the way Leto and McConaughey move in this film brings their characters added life. The costume design from Kurt Swanson and Bart Mueller (aka Kurt and Bart) is outstanding, most notably a suit worn by Leto late in the film as he visits his father, dressed as a man, only Rayon (his birth name is Raymond) has lost so much weight the jacket nearly envelops his entire body. It’s not often a costume speaks volumes, but this screams at the top of its lungs.
You can read my full review right here and read the full interview here.
Dallas Buyers Club hits theaters on November 1.
