Known for his powerful performances in movies like Remember the Titans, Training Day, The Great Debaters, and many more, Denzel Washington is one of the greatest actors of our time. The Cry Freedom actor has established himself not only as a household name but also as an acting powerhouse, winning both the Academy Awards and a Tony Award.
The major reason for Denzel Washington’s successful career is the method acting approach that assists him in playing the characters he plays in the movies, allowing him to be in the mindset of the character he plays. However, while shooting the crime thriller, The Little Things, the tension was high with his fellow co-star, Jared Leto, and sometimes Washington would stalk Leto to his apartment.
Denzel Washington Gave Jared Leto A Glimpse of His Method Acting
The Little Things was a passion project for John Lee Hancock which took him 30 years to produce featuring names big names such as Rami Malek, Denzel Washington, Jared Leto, Natalie Morales, and many more. The movie narrates the story of a Deputy Sheriff teaming up with a detective to hunt down a serial killer.
While talking to USA Today, Denzel Washington stated how he was not a fan of Jared Leto’s extreme method acting methods, where he sends creepy gifts to his co-stars, or else he would have “been paid a visit,” showcasing his distaste for such acts. However, Denzel Washington was not messing around while shooting the film, as he took a card out of Leto’s character and followed him a few times to his apartment.
“He didn’t do any of that with me. Nah. He’d have been paid a visit. That wouldn’t happen. I stayed away from him. He stayed away from me, respectfully so. We’d bow or nod from across the highway. Literally, one day we nodded across the highway from each other. [But] I’d follow him around. I was outside of his apartment sometimes and he didn’t know. I won’t say anything more about it. I’ll put it this way, he didn’t know.”
While this action by the two-time Academy Award seems contradictory, this act was interesting between the two method actors and given the nature of their roles in the film, it adds a nice touch to it. Moreover, to add to the tension in the film, they purposely avoided meeting each other before production so that it would showcase high tension during the first scene they shot in the film.
Jared Leto Recalls Working In The Little Things
During an exclusive interview with Variety, Jared Leto shared how he was hesitant to play the role of a serial killer, which was similar to his previous characters. However, he did not want to lose the opportunity to work with a cast full of big names, and they boosted his morale creating a beautiful atmosphere on the set.
“All three of them gave me the gift of a lifetime, and it was an unspoken gesture, but you could feel it nonetheless. They gave me the gift of their confidence in me, their faith in me that I could pull this off. That support was felt amongst the three of us in the scenes, and it created really a beautiful atmosphere where you could fail and you could experiment. You could try things out. You could reach a little bit further than maybe you normally would.”
Jared Leto continued that they never spent time talking to each other on the set of The Little Things as they wanted to keep the energy and tension at its pique, and he believed it was evident to the viewers.
“I think it was the right choice, because we didn’t waste any energy on small talk. We saved it all for the scenes. So, we kind of got to know each other through our characters, and it just built up this energy so that when the cameras were rolling it was just explosive, and you could feel it … But there was a lot of respect and support, and the energy was great.”
Nevertheless, their methods bore fruit as the tension was evident in the scenes, and it earned $ 29.7 million worldwide at the box office with additional video sales worth $ 3 million.
The Little Things can be streamed on Max.
Source: USA Today
