Jared Leto’s obliviously ironic attack on Daniel Day-Lewis

One of the very few things Daniel Day-Lewis and Jared Leto have in common is that they’re Academy Award-winning actors who favour the method, but there aren’t many similarities between them beyond that.

The former is undoubtedly one of the all-time greats who dives so deep into his characters that he loses all sense of himself. It’s not every thespian’s cup of tea, but when he’s accumulated three ‘Best Actor’ Oscars and earned his spot as one of the finest talents to grace the silver screen, it’s hard to say that his approach hasn’t reaped the maximum rewards.

Technically, factually, and statistically, the latter has a better track record at the Oscars than Day-Lewis, having won his only nomination when his turn in Dallas Buyers Club earned him the prize for ‘Best Supporting Actor’. And yet, nobody views them as method men in the same category.

The main reason why is that Leto is more often than not reduced to becoming the butt of the joke by taking himself and his craft so seriously that it becomes unintentionally hilarious. Day-Lewis lived as Christy Brown and gave a tour-de-force in My Left Footwhich involved remaining in a wheelchair even when the cameras weren’t rolling so as not to break his concentration or attachment to the part.

Leto, meanwhile, scurried to and from the toilet in a wheelchair on the set of Morbius because he insisted on using his character’s crutches between takes. Needless to say, as one of the worst comic book adaptations of the 21st-century boom that netted the leading man a Razzie for ‘Worst Actor’, it all felt a little unnecessary.

Then there’s Leto putting on so much weight for the Mark David Chapman biopic that nobody saw that he gave himself gout, wearing contact lenses so thick he rendered himself blind for a Blade Runner 2049 supporting role that amounted to little more than a glorified cameo or the bizarre gifts he sent to his co-stars when remaining in character as the Joker on the derided Suicide Squad.

It sounds oxymoronic to suggest that two actors who’ve adopted the exact same approach couldn’t be more different from each other, but Leto appears to remain oblivious to the fact he’s become a figure of widespread mockery, which makes it obliviously ironic on his part that he criticised Day-Lewis for how he kept himself occupied during his sabbatical from acting in the 1990s.

“I always remember reading Daniel Day-Lewis went off to learn how to make shoes in Italy for five years, which I thought was hilarious,” he told Variety. “Who knows if it’s even true or not? I don’t really have that much interest in shoes. I’m fortunate in the sense that I have a creative outlet. So I’m not dependent on films to give me creative reward or to make a living.”

Day-Lewis stint as a shoemaker was a way to refocus and channel his creative energies when he needed a break from acting, whereas Leto tends to scale buildings and attend mysterious meditative retreats. One thing’s for sure: most people would much rather own a pair of handcrafted Day-Lewis shoes than listen to a 30 Seconds to Mars album from beginning to end.

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