The Little Things Star Denzel Washington Addresses Jared Leto’s On-Set Antics

Oscar winning actor Jared Leto has a reputation for being a full blown method actor, sometimes at the expense of his co-stars. He previously lost over 30 pounds for his part in Dallas Buyers Club (which netted him the Academy Award), gained over 60 pounds and even contracted gout when he played John Lennon assassin Mark David Chapman, and famously sent outlandish gifts to his Suicide Squad co-stars including a dead pig, a live rat, and used sex toys. For his upcoming part in The Little Things, Leto seemingly continued his tradition but his co-star, fellow Oscar winner Denzel Washington, said that none of Leto’s extra-ness came into his orbit.

“He didn’t do any of that with me,” Washington told USA Today before they could even finish the question “Nah. He’d have been paid a visit. That wouldn’t happen.” In a bit of a flip on the script though, Washington reveals that he kind of did a little bit of method acting himself on Leto. In the film Denzel plays Deputy Sheriff Joe Deacon opposite Leto’s Albert Sparma, a suspect in a murder. The pair never met or spoke until their first scenes together, with Washington saying that he would spy on Leto from afar in the time between

“I stayed away from him. He stayed away from me, respectfully so,” Washington added. “We’d bow or nod from across the highway. Literally, one day we nodded across the highway from each other….I’d follow him around. I was outside of his apartment sometimes and he didn’t know. I won’t say anything more about it. I’ll put it this way, he didn’t know.”

John Lee Hancock, the director of the movie, revealed to the outlet that the pair first saw each other ” in costume for a night scene where Deacon suspiciously checks out Sparma’s car.” That they weren’t chummy with each other off set made for even more tension in the scene apparently.

Despite no love for Leto’s weirdness, Washington had high praise for he and their co-star Rami Malek (all three Oscar winners), saying: “There’s a whole crop of these younger actors, and it’s fascinating to watch them coming up behind me. Unfortunately, we lost one with Chad Boseman. But Jared is one, obviously, and Rami is doing great work. It’s inspiring and like a wake-up call. It’s like, I have to get my act together here. These guys ain’t playing.”

The Little Things premieres this Friday in theaters and on HBO Max.