Jared Leto Breaks Silence on Infamous Suicide Squad Gifts to the Cast, Including Margot Robbie's Rat

While it's been several years since Suicide Squad made its debut, the film has still managed to be a topic of conversation in a lot of ways. The 2016 film featured an all-star cast in their take on DC Comics' antihero ensemble, with Jared Leto's take on The Joker playing a highly-publicized — but ultimately small — part in that. Even before the film debuted, reports had indicated that Leto gave unconventional gifts to his costars, ranging from live rats to sex toys. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Leto debunked the nature of some of that previous reporting, arguing that any gifts he did give were "in jest."

"Any of the very few gifts that were ever given were given with a spirit of fun and adventure and received with laughter, fun, and adventure," Leto told the outlet. "It's all filmed! They filmed it all! People were dying. We were just having a goof."

"The only gifts I ever gave Margot were cupcakes," Leto continued. "I think I gave her a mouse, and some of the other guys got gifts that you'd get as a joke at a party... I'm playing a guy called the Joker, it's okay to play some jokes. Nothing ever crossed any lines, and it's not up to other people on the internet to create those lines... I'm an artist at the end of the day. If I do something risky and you don't like it, basically, you can kiss my ass."

Oddly enough, Leto did affirm that he gave some of the more salacious gifts back around the film's 2016 release, and provided a detailed justification of it as well.

"It was interesting to do because The Joker loves to play games, loves to manipulate, and it was part of the reason to [give the gifts]," Leto said at the time. "When you give a gift to someone in real life, you think about what do I get them. You think about who that person is to you, what would they like. So that immediately started to be really good homework for me. What do I give Deadshot? What is my relationship with Deadshot? What's our history? Down the line, with every character, you start to think about what would I get them? I gave Deadshot a briefcase full of bullets. It was kind of a message, kind of a threat. It was kind of a reminder."

What do you think of the latest comments from Jared Leto regarding his Suicide Squad gifts? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!