Plenty of people were (and still are!) unhappy with what Jared Leto did as Joker in “Suicide Squad,” from his castmates who received gross gifts like live rats and dead pigs, to the audience who had to sit through the movie and stare at his DAMAGE tattoo. But one person who definitely wasn’t as unhappy as to affect the movie’s runtime? Director David Ayer, who took to Twitter to dismiss claims that he cut Leto’s screen time because he was unhappy with the Oscar winner’s performance as the Batman villain.
READ MORE: Jared Leto Pressured His Agents To Kill Todd Phillips’s ‘Joker’
After The Hollywood Reporter published a report alleging that Leto tried to stop Todd Phillip’s “Joker” from happening, and also claims that Warner Bros. “wasn’t thrilled” with Leto’s off-screen antics. As a “source with knowledge of the situation” told The Hollywood Reporter that David Ayer “wasn’t pleased with the resulting performance.” The story also alludes that Ayer being dissatisfied with Leto’s performance as Joker led to some scenes featuring the character ended up on the cutting room floor. In the final cut of the film, Leto’s Joker got about 10 minutes of screen time despite being a big part of the film’s marketing. While promoting the project, Leto also spoke about shooting more footage than was used in the theatrical cut of “Suicide Squad.”
The report also claims that Leto’s time as the iconic Batman villain is likely over. Not only did he take no part in the standalone “Joker” which is breaking box office records to everyone’s surprise and is about to surpass Leto’s own “Suicide Squad” at the box office, but as of now isn’t scheduled to reprise his role. Leto’s Joker is reportedly not going to appear in either “Birds of Prey” or James Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad,” despite “Suicide Squad” cast members such as Margot Robbie and Joel Kinnaman reprising their roles in the sequel.
