[CW: sexual assault; harm to children]
The crime, allegedly
Grooming and predatory behavior towards, and sexual assault of, minors, by Jared Leto. Leto “absolutely and categorically” denies the allegations.
The story
You’ve probably already seen or become aware of most of the bold-type revelations from the BBC’s Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret if you cared to, and if you didn’t/don’t care to, I don’t blame you. I noted the renewed attention on the allegations on Extra Extra Hot Great late last week, but my work life has also brought me in contact recently with Leto’s Jordan Catalano lunging at Claire Danes’s Angela Chase for a crappily abrupt kiss that prompts an iconic clock from Angela – “I don’t open that wide at the dentist” – and it’s like, I think I’ve spent enough cultural time with the clumsiness of teen boys getting warped by entitlement into something much more sinister.
As well, one of the first notes I took while watching the hourlong doc (I “flew to England” to watch it, but I needn’t have; it’s on YouTube as of this writing) bemoaned the depressing sameness of the projects that feature the testimony of survivors in these cases: that the predator’s m.o. is always cringe, that the declarations against the predator are always legion and always go back years, that the industry’s response is always “well but so we’re ‘sorry you feel that way’ but the guy prints money.”
But JL:HDS does a few things that make it worth seeking out, over and above letting survivors speak, starting with its reasonable one-hour length. That depressing sameness I mentioned can make a viewer feel defeated before she even starts, but director Alice McShane (Children of the Cult) keeps things moving without rushing.
It helped too that our esteemed colleague Maureen Ryan appears onscreen not five minutes into the doc. Mo’s NYT piece on the allegations against Leto specifically, and reporting cases like this generally, is gift-linked here and above; Burn It Down is essential reading on abuse and toxicity in Hollywood (disclosure: I was an early reader), and Mo’s disgusted comment towards the end of JL:HDS that “everyone has a vested interest in all of this going away” is essential to understanding why claims against Leto going back years might not seem to gain any meaningful traction.
It’s not just that he’s too “important” per se, but also that he’s too important to the entire economy he creates around himself, from agents and managers and assistants to a film’s creative and sales ecosystems to, in Leto’s case, the album and touring ecosystems of pop music. That explains why a veteran of the 30 Seconds To Mars-verse won’t appear on-camera, or use their own voice, to grouse that “Jared is one of the worst people I’ve ever worked for”…but kept working for Leto.
And it explains why Elena Clavarino’s Air Mail piece from last year, “The Cult of Leto,” seemed like a bombshell when it first hit – and then, Clavarino sighs in JL:HDS, started to lose search-results momentum days later, probably because the Tron: Ares team crisis-managed it off the first page.
Nothing can explain Leto allegedly asking to pass young women’s numbers along to “a friend of his,” then (probably; allegedly) posing as the friend and doing voices while calling from an unknown number…or the unabashedly corny invitation emailed to one young woman*, with its “For the Brave” note, its promise (read: “threat”) of a “Midnight swim,” and its amateurish RSVP Gmail address.
*It’s possible the invitation was “re-enacted” digitally for the documentary, but I can’t imagine Beeb legal didn’t clear the substance of it.
You can “explain” things like Leto doing a Wooderson “they stay the same aaaage” bit during a performance; and a jokey segment on Ellen Degeneres’s show about sleeping with fans (his fellow guest? Drake); and Leto’s allegedly asking “Clara” to call him “Daddy,” and to act like a little girl…or like his little girl. But…you don’t have to “explain” these things, because they’re so stereotypically predatory and disrespectful.
And you don’t have to explain Alex trying to take a snarky tone about having gotten stuck in a London hotel room with Leto, half-drunk, no cash, her phone dying, and hearing from Leto that “if you’re gonna sleep here, you’re gonna wake up with a dick in your ass.” And you don’t have to explain that, after a few minutes, the sardonic mask melts as Alex describes blowing off the incident to a friend as a “misunderstanding,” that she’s “probably the only one.”
“I’m probably not the only one. And it’s probably been a lot worse.”
…Probably not. And: probably so.
Allegedly.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence, you are not alone. Free, confidential, 24/7 support in English and en Español is available. Call 800.656.HOPE (4673), chat at RAINN.org/hotline, or text “HOPE” to 64673.
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