Suicide Squad's Jared Leto Spent Time With Institutionalized Psychopaths To Prepare For The Joker Role

We've heard a lot from Suicide Squad's cast and crew about Jared Leto's deep commitment to bringing The Joker to life for the film.

In addition to sending disturbing gifts to his fellow cast, Leto also decided to speak to professionals in the field of pschiatry, and some fo the patients who were still institutionalized. He said that the experience was fun. Speaking to EW:

"There are a lot of things. It's probably better to not get into it but to the Joker, violence is a symphony. This is someone who gets an extreme reward from the act of violence and manipulation. Those are the songs he sings and he is very in tune with what makes people tick. I did meet with people that were experts, doctors, psychiatrists that dealt with psychopaths and people who had committed horrendous crimes, and then I spent some time with those people themselves, people who have been institutionalized for great periods of time. I guess when you take on a role, any role, you become part detective, part writer, and for me that's my favorite time of the entire process, the discovering, the uncovering, and the building of a character. Yeah, it's really fun."

"It was challenging but it was also fun. He has a great sense of humor, depending on who you ask. [Laughs]"

It looks like all the research he's done went to great use. From what I've seen in the trailers and photos so far, he looks perfectly insane, and I'm excited to see his unique take of The Joker Suicide Squad, when it hits theaters Aug. 5.