Jared Leto Does “Amazing, Transformative Work” In Suicide Squad

With Suicide Squad's release under a month away, a huge weight befalls Jared Leto as he brings The Joker to the big screen for the first time since Heath Ledgers iconic portrayal in 2008's The Dark Knight.

Early reactions to Leto's portrayal of the purple and green menace have been very positive. The Suicide Squad trailers show him to be high energy, violent, and possibly a good bit of fun. It's made The Joker one of the most anticipated characters of the summer and with good reason, according to Suicide Squad's producer.

"Jared has been doing some amazing, transformative work in this movie. I think his look is very different," said Suicide Squad producer Andy Horwitz during a set visit Comicbook.com attended last summer. "I think we had to obviously do something different than people have seen before. I think now that you guys have gotten to see the trailer, you got a little slice of what he is in the movie and how he acts. It's a look that took a lot of time to zero in and dial in and [Director] David [Ayer] and Jared and the studio and Rich and all of us kind of worked on it for awhile."

"The tattoos were a big part of the design of this character and what you'll see over there, which maybe you glanced at, is a board that has a number of different designs and ideas and things that aren't just exclusive for the Joker but to other characters," added producer Richard Suckle. "David found a really fantastically talented local tattoo artist, a guy by the name of Rob Coutts, who designed all those things and everything that you see that's on Jared. There's a lot of things that didn't make it into the movie, but he was a real great addition and a real blessing for us to find. As I'm sure you guys already know, tattoos play a role in a number of the characters, not just exclusive to Joker."

"Jared did a lot of work on his body as well," Horwitz explained. "He spent a significant amount of time in prep before he got here working out. He's a vegan so it's obviously difficult at times to try to gain weight and gain muscle, but he's figured out creative ways around it and how to do it and really dove in head first as he usually does."

You can catch Leto's portrayal of The Joker when Suicide Squad hits theaters August 5, 2016.