Morbius Star Adria Arjona Says Jared Leto’s Body Transformation Was “Impressive, but Also Terrifying To See.”

Morbius hit theatres this weekend, and while it hasn’t been met with the most positive reviews from critics, the movie did win the weekend box office. Morbius earned $39 million, which is about what was projected by Sony. The film stars Jared Leto who is known for making big transformations for his roles and staying in character during productions. Leto has lost and gained a dramatic amount of weight for parts in the past, including his Oscar-winning role in Dallas Byers Club. For Morbius, the star put himself through another intense weight loss and he, along with his director and co-stars, recently spoke to Yahoo! about his intense process. 

“I’ve done a lot of this in films,” Leto explained. “It’s not a fun thing. It’s a very hard, bad thing to do to your health and your body.” He added, “Losing weight is different [from gaining weight] because there’s something about that restraint that we humans have explored for thousands of years. You know, restriction, meditation as a way to find oneself, as a spiritual part of a spiritual quest. And there’s something to that process that is interesting. Gaining, I think is significantly harder, to be honest, especially that amount of weight cause you gain it and you lose it. When you lose weight, your body naturally wants to come back… Morbius is kind of the perfect film for me and the things that I’m interested in as an actor, which is big physical challenges [and] emotional challenges.”

“I’ve never experienced that and he stays pretty close to the character the whole time, physically, mentally, emotionally,” co-star Matt Smith shared. “Once he’s in that zone, he’s there.”

“It’s an honor as a director to work with somebody who’s not just committed, but obsessed,” director Daniel Espinosa added. “That motivates the whole crew… to be with somebody who is so immersive at times, it got almost a bit scary ’cause he’s very committed and those transformations, sometimes it looked like they would tear him apart.”

“It was really interesting to work with someone,” co-star Adria Arjona explains. “Like Danny was saying, I think sometimes [it was] very scary. I would see his back and I would see what he had to do with his body physically. And he would spend hours and he would not break character. And I just couldn’t imagine being in that position for so many hours. And what that sort of did to his body, it was really impressive, but also terrifying to see.”

Morbius is now playing in theaters.