After three decades of crowd surfing off rock concert stages and profoundly transforming for the silver screen, L'OFFICIEL Hommes global Fall 2020 cover star Jared Leto discusses life today with pop music innovator and Billie Eilish-collaborator, Finneas.

Photography by Cameron McCool

Styled by Karla Welch

Twenty years ago, <a href="https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2557818/6-questions-we-have-about-jared-letos-joker-in-zack-snyders-justice-league">Jared Leto</a> was high off his mind on heroin, launching himself off an illusionary Coney Island boardwalk into the great abyss. As Harry, the core fallen hero of Darren Aronofsky&rsquo;s psychological drug epic <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/jennifer-connelly-interview-2019">Requiem for a Dream</a>, Leto justified critical acclaim, catapulting the actor and musician (he formed cult-favorite rock outfit <a href="https://thirtysecondstomars.com">Thirty Seconds to Mars</a> with his brother, Shannon, in 1998) to leading-man level after previous but buzzy supporting appearances in <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/film/122199girl-film-review.html">Girl, Interrupted</a> and David Fincher&rsquo;s <a href="https://collider.com/what-is-fight-club-really-about-explained/">Fight Club</a>, thanks to his biting performance and agonizing methodology.&nbsp;In the two decades since, he has continued to chase the extremes&mdash;from playing a millennial supervillain in <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/margot-robbie-confirms-harley-quinn-movie">Suicide Squad</a> to a transgender pill pusher in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/27/movies/jared-leto-stayed-in-character-on-dallas-buyers-club-set.html">Dallas Buyers&nbsp;Club</a>&mdash;with subversive, sometimes bizarre performances that beg the question: are there no lengths he won&rsquo;t go?

Similarly, in music and fashion, Leto has dissolved the boundaries of <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/sex-and-fashion-in-ryan-murphys-hollywood">Hollywood</a> convention, evolving from late-aughts emo alternative to the non-confirming maximalism populated by <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/gucci-alessandro-michele-fall-2019-campaign">Alessandro Michele</a> at Gucci (for whom Jared long played muse) and a new generation of experimental TikTokers. Indeed Leto today, with his long mane of hair and well-built physique, is no longer the same skinny-jean-clad young rocker stomping at the Vans Warped Tour, which is even more evidenced in the upcoming Daniel Espinosa-directed Marvel film&nbsp;Morbius, for which he plays the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLMBLuGJTsA">film&#39;s titular character</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;the upcoming crime thriller <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/news/jared-leto-serial-killer-the-little-things-denzel-washington-rami-malek-1203287311/">The Little Things</a>. On the advent of Requiem&rsquo;s anniversary, Leto speaks with long-time friend (and sometimes collaborator) <a href="https://www.insider.com/finneas-oconnell-songs-wrote-produced-billie-eilish-brother">Finneas O&rsquo;Connell</a>&mdash;known mononymously as Finneas and the silent power behind sister <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/music/billie-eilish-isn-t-your-pretty-little-pop-star">Billie Eilish</a>&mdash;about his newfound love of rock climbing, the high of live performance, and even unreleased music.

- Joshua Glass

FINNEAS: I read an interview that you did entitled <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/3036585/i-like-to-employ-the-power-of-no-jared-leto">&ldquo;I Like to Employ the Power of No&rdquo;</a> that really informed how I&rsquo;ve gone about my [own] career, and I think the way Billie has, too. You are so definitive and thoughtful in every choice you make, and I wanted to ask you if you can think of anything that you regretted saying no to? Something that seemed like the right thing to pass on at the time that years later you thought, Man, I should&rsquo;ve done that?

JARED LETO: I love to work, I love to find solutions to problems, so I really have to watch the amount of work that I take on, because everything you say yes to is a no to something else. But when you do say no, it&rsquo;s a yes to another opportunity. I remember hearing <a href="https://www.apple.com/stevejobs/">Steve Jobs</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-jony-ive-apple-relationship-friendship-stories-anecdotes-2019-7"> say to Jony Ive</a> that sacrifice isn&rsquo;t saying no to something you don&rsquo;t really care about, sacrifice is actually saying no to something that could be a valuable experience. I think about that often because sacrificing is really important. I don&rsquo;t really think in terms of regret, but if I were to put some things in that pile, it would probably be less about turning down movies or opportunities and more about spending more time <a href="https://www.esquireme.com/content/44270-jared-leto-almost-died-while-mountain-climbing">climbing mountains and being in the outdoors</a>. There&rsquo;s a time limit on that, and it&rsquo;s something I wish I&rsquo;d done more of in my life.

Saint Laurent Shirt

F: Fulfillment comes in small doses, especially for professional artists. There&rsquo;s some level of it in making an album, of course, or I&rsquo;m assuming making a film, but then there&rsquo;s also so much brain space that is spent thinking about your <a href="https://variety.com/2020/film/news/jared-leto-joker-justice-league-zack-snyder-1234812428/">next project</a>, or the chorus of that one song that you haven&rsquo;t cracked yet, etc. So the notion that climbing brings you so much pure satisfaction brings me so much joy. You&rsquo;re in a position where you probably give a lot of advice to people&mdash;I&rsquo;ve definitely asked you for advice&mdash;but I want to know whose advice you seek out, if anyone&rsquo;s?

JL: You can be working on an album and on top of the world one day because you&rsquo;ve had a breakthrough, and then three weeks later you hate it. I often go through that rollercoaster of dissatisfaction and surprise and excitement, and I think that&rsquo;s the nice thing about climbing for me. The outdoors, the simplicity, the base instinct that compels you to be completely in the moment. There are a lot of people I turn to for advice. When I&rsquo;m making music, it can be someone like you, which I&rsquo;ve done a few times. I actually finished one of the demos we worked on together, I should send it to you to hear. It&rsquo;s quite cool. It&rsquo;s super weird and super dark, which is my favorite and I think yours, too. The good thing about making films is that you have the director, the writers, the editors, and other actors to work with. I was on the phone the other day doing ADR [voice recording] for <a href="https://www.insider.com/morbius-jared-leto-movie-trailer-2020-1">Morbius</a>, and I stopped and asked the technicians a sound question that I had always thought about. I guess I&rsquo;m just obsessed with learning; I&rsquo;m hyper-curious and I just want to learn all the time.

F: That&rsquo;s probably why you&rsquo;re so good at so many things. I think you&rsquo;re also afforded the luxury of having the people whose advice you&rsquo;re seeking often being the experts in their respective fields.

JL: I like to learn from my friends, too...how they spend their spare time...who&rsquo;s in their social lives...what their friendships and families are like. I have a long way to go with all of those things because I&rsquo;ve been so hyper-focused on my <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-features/jared-leto-the-unlikely-triumphs-of-a-rock-star-movie-star-250359/">career</a> goals and ambitions for so many years. I&rsquo;m finally making more time for other things in my life now, so that&rsquo;s something I could learn a lot from you and other people.

F: You were really kind to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwdRimp3-jM">me and Billie</a> way before anyone was aware of us, and for that we feel very grateful. I mean, we feel grateful to know you at all, but especially when we met, we were in so much need of counseling. I remember you telling us that when you first started, nobody wanted to sign your band. I thought that was so wild to hear because your music played such an instrumental role in my adolescence. Was that really the case? Were there not a flurry of deals thrown at you immediately?

JL: No, but I think part of the problem might have been us. [Laughing.] It was complicated, and it was for a long time even after we were signed. We didn&rsquo;t really have any success for about seven or eight years, and our first breakthrough wasn&rsquo;t until 2006 with the song &ldquo;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIxxdRaWoBs">The Kill</a>.&rdquo; And even then&mdash;I mean I&rsquo;ve told this story so many times&mdash;but at one point, radio stations refused to play us. MTV said they would never, ever buy into the Thirty Seconds to Mars business ever! Since then we&rsquo;ve gone on to win two dozen MTV awards and play on probably a dozen different MTV awards shows around the world. We became <a href="https://www.mtv.com/video-clips/kf92d1/thirty-seconds-to-mars-on-their-favorite-unplugged">great partners</a>, but we went from a net negative to crawling our way out and having more success than we ever imagined. I have so much gratitude for all those experiences. When you&rsquo;re starting out, you&rsquo;re looking forward. The main drivers for me were fear and failure, but <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jared-leto-thirty-seconds-to-mars/">when I look back</a>, it&rsquo;s gratitude. Even when I look forward now it&rsquo;s gratitude, so it&rsquo;s good to get to that place.

When you're starting out, you're looking forward. The main drivers for me were fear and failure, but when I look back, it's gratitude. Even when I look forward now it's gratitude. - Jared Leto

F: I wasn&rsquo;t always hip to the notion that you&rsquo;ve directed a bunch of your videos under a pseudonym [ed. note: and the upcoming documentary <a href="https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/a-day-in-the-life-of-america/">A Day in the Life of America</a>]. It&rsquo;s a thing that Thirty Seconds to Mars and my sister have in common: the visual component is so strong that it makes the music even more engaging. I&rsquo;ve heard for years that <a href="https://www.insider.com/actors-that-dont-watch-their-own-movies-2020-1">you don&rsquo;t watch the movies</a>&mdash;or even the trailers&mdash;that you&rsquo;re in, so I was wondering if directing a music video is challenging, since you have to watch your own performance?

JL: Oddly, it doesn&rsquo;t bother me at all, but I&rsquo;d have a completely different relationship to that if I were a film director. As an actor, I find it better to let go of that control or responsibility once you finish the scene. With the exception of &ldquo;Rescue Me&rdquo; that Mark Romanek did, I&rsquo;ve <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/30-seconds-to-mars-documentary-wins-peoples-choice-award-in-toronto-93679/">directed</a> all of the Thirty Seconds to Mars videos under the pseudonym Bartholomew Cubbins. It&rsquo;s one of my <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/magazine/jared-letos-worst-kept-secret.html">worst-kept secrets</a>, but it&rsquo;s been fun for me because I had the opportunity to work a little more in a vacuum without the pressures that come along with it. When I release an album I spend as much time on the music videos and visual components as I do the songs themselves. Maybe it&rsquo;s because I was an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-jared-leto-2016-8">art school dropou</a><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-jared-leto-2016-8">t</a>; I always wanted to be a painter.

Jared-Leto-L'Officiel-Hommes-USA-October-2020-color-photo-in-Saint-Laurent-white-shirt-Officiel.jpg

F: I know that none of us are playing shows this year, obviously, but last summer you did a terrifying number of shows in a super limited amount of time across Europe. Weren&rsquo;t you playing every day for some seven weeks?

JL: We historically have always played a lot. We used to call our agent and complain if we had a day off, so it was common for us to do shows 21 days straight, 18 days straight, and then 14 days straight. If we had a day off in the middle, we&rsquo;d be like, What the hell are we doing? Can we play another show? It&rsquo;s funny, early on in the <a href="https://www.nme.com/big-reads/nme-big-read-jared-leto-2283102">band&rsquo;s career</a> I was in Cannes. Requiem for Dream was debuting at the film festival, and&mdash;as you know&mdash;I don&rsquo;t typically watch my movies. Darren Aronofsky pretty much put me in a headlock. He dragged me to the premiere and said, &ldquo;You have to watch the film, you have to be a part of this experience, walk the steps of the [Boulevard de la] Croisette,&rdquo; and I did. I watched the movie. I sat next to Hubert Selby Jr. As the lights came on, he and I looked over to each other <a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/an-oral-history-of-requiem-for-a-dream.html">in tears</a>. The whole place was on its feet giving a standing ovation. Later that night we went to <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/music/say-it-ain-t-so-elton-john-announces-farewell-tour">Elton John&rsquo;s</a> house with the cast. Elton&rsquo;s a real supporter of and believer in young artists, and he&rsquo;s really got his ear to the ground. We were talking that night and I told him that music was actually how I started my career. He told me, &ldquo;Tour, tour, tour again, and when you&rsquo;re done with that, tour some more.&rdquo; It was really Elton who reaffirmed and encouraged me to double down on the live shows because they were so life- changing for him. Of course, you can hear something from a famous superstar and it can go in one ear and out the other, but what he said really made an impact on me.

Jared-Leto-L'Officiel-Hommes-USA-October-2020-in-Saint-Laurent-black-tee-Officiel.jpg

F: I think about the role psychedelics have played in my life.

JL: Cue &ldquo;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2017/5/26/15697560/elton-john-tiny-dancer-music-video-watch-snapchat">Tiny Dancer</a>.&rdquo;

F: I don&rsquo;t do drugs, not by virtue of being pointedly straight- edge, it&rsquo;s just not tremendously interesting to me&mdash;

JL: It&rsquo;s ok, I&rsquo;ve done enough for both of us, and your sister too.

F: &mdash;but the greatest feeling is being on stage, I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s anything that rivals the power of that position in front of however many people in the audience, with everyone singing along and in the palm of your hand. Jared, you have a super <a href="https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/g28585/jared-leto-method-moments/">multi-faceted</a> life, do you still have that same feeling of bliss and euphoria when you&rsquo;re on stage playing a great show?

JL: Yeah, it is the greatest feeling, and you&rsquo;re right that there&rsquo;s not a drug in the world that can compete with running around in Yosemite or standing on stage in Paris or London. When I&rsquo;m performing, I am still working. I&rsquo;m going, Why is it the audience on the left side isn&rsquo;t as enthusiastic? Or I&rsquo;ll see that one kid down there and I make it my mission to make him have the best night of his entire life. I&rsquo;m always thinking about the music cues or if a note was flat, so yes, I&rsquo;m always working, but I also try to get to a place <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/hanging-out-with-jared-leto-1504791535">where I can let go</a> and really be in the show. Those moments are glorious.&nbsp;

Jared-Leto-L'Officiel-Hommes-Fall-2020-Officiel-Cover-in-vintage-denim-jacket-and-John-Hardy-ring-Officiel.jpg

F: I&rsquo;m in the same place; if the lights are just off by a couple milliseconds, I&rsquo;ll notice. If there&rsquo;s some kid getting into a fight with someone else, I&rsquo;ll notice. All while I&rsquo;m still performing and playing my bass guitar and singing along to the song. It&rsquo;s really amazing how attentive you can be on stage.

JL: Yeah, your brain can compartmentalize quite a bit, especially when you&rsquo;re in that state of fight or flight, and high consequence. But there&rsquo;s also the thing where it can be me, my brother, and 40,000 people, and I feel completely relaxed and at peace. You would never think that would be the case, but I&rsquo;ve had those moments of just the complete absence of discomfort, and that&rsquo;s a really incredible feeling. Intimacy, you know. But what do you think the future of touring is? Now I look at photos of me from before, standing on top of the crowd or running through an audience at Rock Am Ring [Festival] of 100,000 people, and I&rsquo;m like, <a href="https://www.kerrang.com/the-news/thirty-seconds-to-mars-are-hosting-a-festival-on-a-private-island/">Is that going to happen again</a>?

F: I think so. When, I don&rsquo;t know. But it will. Billie and I have parents in their 60s, so they&rsquo;re in a higher risk percentage, and she has asthma, so I&rsquo;ve been really careful. I think most people are pretty bored out of their minds in this <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/jared-leto-didnt-know-about-coronavirus">pandemic</a>, though. So I think as soon as people are told that it&rsquo;s even halfway safe to go to Coachella again, they will. People seem to value joyous experiences over 100 percent safety. That seems to be the reality of it. I totally agree with you, though; looking at footage from past concerts, it all seems like total lunacy.

JL: There&rsquo;s one photo that someone sent me of me standing on a barricade with maybe a thousand hands reaching out to touch mine. Even after the vaccine, I think we&rsquo;re still gonna be like, Can I get a wet wipe or something? I don&rsquo;t know. But I do think you&rsquo;re right, people are ready to get back out and get together and celebrate life and all the possibilities and just have a good fucking time. I know I am.

Jared-Leto-L'Officiel-Hommes-USA-October-2020-black-and-white-photo-in-Saint-Laurent-vintage-car-Officiel.jpg

HAIR&nbsp;Marcus Francis

GROOMING&nbsp;Jamie Taylor using Augustinus Bader&nbsp;The&nbsp;Wall&nbsp;Group

CREATIVE DIRECTION&nbsp;Trey Laird

ART DIRECTION Michael Riso

VISUAL DIRECTOR&nbsp;Miriam Herzfeld

PRODUCTION&nbsp;Creative Blood

L&#39;OFFICIEL Hommes USA Fall 2020 will hit newsstands starting November 15, 2020.

Jared Leto's Worst Kept Secrets

Tags

Related Articles

Beauty

Lana Del Rey & Jared Leto Star in the Gucci Guilty Campaign

Save The Date

Jared Leto, Lana Del Rey and Courtney Love Partied in a Cemetery Last Week

Fashion

Jared Leto Talks Scents He Loves—And Hates

Recommended posts for you

Beauty

Rhode's Cinnamon Roll Lip Tint Is Finally Here

Fashion

These Timeless Luxury Accessories Were Made to Cherish for a Lifetime

Beauty

The Evolution of Rocker Hair

Fashion

Louis Vuitton Re-Opens in NYC With Five-Floor Extravaganza

Music

Tate McRae Announces 2025 Tour, Drops New Single

Fashion

Dior's Lady Art Project Returns With Stunning Artist-Made Bags

Pop culture

20 Rare Photos of Young King Charles III: A Look at His Earlier Life

Fashion

Skims Teams Up With Dolce & Gabbana for a Luxurious Collaboration