Jared Leto Delayed 'Morbius' Production With Long Bathroom Breaks

Sony Pictures

Morbius hit theaters on Friday and has since turned into an instant meme.
The film currently has an abysmal 17% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes.
During a recent interview, the director revealed that Leto went so method his bathroom breaks were affected.

Ever since Jared Leto won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor — for a role that, while good, is more impressive in terms of its physical transformation than its actual caliber of acting — he’s become something of a self-parody, a living meme of an actor. He reminds me of what an actor would be in a cartoon-like South Park or Family Guy.

After infamously and allegedly mailing Suicide Squad co-stars dead rats and used condoms — a rumor he’s since tried to deny — Leto apparently didn’t learn his lesson on the set of Morbius, either.

During a recent interview with Uproxx, director Daniel Espinosa discussed how Leto’s method commitment to playing Dr. Michael Morbius led to prolonged bathroom breaks that were ultimately impacting the ultimate pace of production. In an effort to speed Leto’s “process” up, Espinosa and Leto ultimately agreed to have him wheeled to the bathroom in a wheelchair. Yes, seriously.

Jared Leto delayed filming of Morbius with lengthy trips to the bathroom

“Someone told me that Jared Leto was so committed to playing Michael Morbius that even when he had to go to the bathroom, he would use his crutches and slowly limp to get to the bathroom. But it was taking so long between for pee breaks, that a deal was made with him to get him a wheelchair so someone could wheel him there quicker and he agreed to that. Is this true?,” Uproxx asked.

“Yeah. Because I think that what Jared thinks, what Jared believes, is that somehow the pain of those movements, even when he was playing normal Michael Morbius, he needed, because he’s been having this pain his whole life. Even though, as he’s alive and strong, it has to be a difference. Hey, man, it’s people’s processes. All of the actors believe in processes. And you, as director, you support whatever makes it as good as you can be,” Espinosa responded.

Espinosa was then pressed on how Leto’s prolonged “process” was affecting the speed at which the movie was made:

“From your angle, can that be, “This is really slowing down production and I have to talk to the big wigs and tell them why we’re behind.” I could understand why that might be, I don’t know, frustrating, is that the word?“ Uproxx asked.

“But it’s more that I think the directors that don’t like actors get really frustrated about that. I think it’s really mysterious, what they do. Almost all actors, in general, have their own reputation of being an interesting person how he works with their characters,” Espinosa replied. “I think that all of them have these traits. If you want a completely normal person that does only things that you understand, then you’re in the wrong business. Because what’s different is what makes them tick. It’s very hard to be able to say, “I can take this part away and I will still get the same stuff from him.” I don’t do that. I’m more to see like, ‘Hey, if you’re doing this, we have to do this.’”

That, ultimately, is the difference between a project like Morbius and Venom, its Sony Spider-Verse counterpart: whereas Tom Hardy used his weirdo energy to jump into a lobster tank and make things fun, Leto is using his to make things dour and difficult.

Still, with a healthy $40 million domestically and almost $85 million at the global box office, there’s still a chance that Morbius lives on for a sequel, which may very well be the end of film as we know it. Then again, Venom seemed to figure out its absurdist tone in its sequel — I much preferred the knowingly “so bad it’s good” Let There Be Carnage over the original — so maybe Morbius can, too. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my many years hating on Jared Leto, it’s, unfortunately, to never count him out, especially when he’s playing a literally undead character.

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