A great deal of the mystique around method acting lies in the bizarre lengths that an actor can go to while method acting. But this approach to acting can sometimes backfire. While playing the Joker in 2016's Suicide Squad, Jared Leto's preparations to play the Clown Prince of Crime grew to ridiculous proportions, with some claiming he mailed used condoms to his co-stars and gifted Margot Robbie, who was playing Harley Quinn, a dead rat. In a recent interview with GQ, Leto firmly denied the latter claim.

"It's also interesting how this stuff all takes on a life of its own. But I never gave Margot Robbie a dead rat, that's just not true. I actually gave her a lot of... I found this place in Toronto that had great vegan cinnamon buns, and that was a very common thing."

Suicide Squad was not the first time that Jared Leto went to extreme measures to inhabit his character. The actor lived on the streets to prepare for playing a junkie in Requiem for a Dream, and permanently hurt his health putting on excess weight for Chapter 27. In a previous interview, Leto had explained that his desire to method act comes from a need to overprepare.

"I appreciate the term [method acting], I think it's a little cloudy, the definition. And it, it could also be really pretentious as well. I was thinking of it as my job to show up and do the best work that I can. It's my job to show up, do whatever I can, to be overprepared. And to deliver. It's also my job to show up and, you know, be a pleasure to work with. And, and, and, and to be collaborative, and to have a good experience on set."

Thanks in part to the rumors surrounding his behavior on set, Leto's take on Joker in Suicide Squad was generally panned by critics and audiences. But the actor is getting a second chance at redeeming the character in the upcoming Zack Snyder's Justice League, which will feature a scene between Joker and Batman. Snyder has explained that he wanted to include the scene in the movie to give fans a chance to see Leto's Joker go head-to-head against Ben Affleck's Batman.

"The cool thing about the scene is that it's Joker talking directly to Batman about Batman. It's Joker analyzing Batman about who he is and what he is. That's the thing I also felt like fans deserved from the DC Universe. That is to say, the Jared Leto Joker and the Ben Affleck Batman, they never really got together. It seemed uncool to me that we would make it all the way through this incarnation of Batman and Joker without seeing them come together... The scene explains why Bruce had the Joker card taped to his gun that you see in Batman v Superman."

Along with an appearance from Jared Leto as Joker, Zack Snyder's Justice League stars Ben Affleck as Batman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Henry Cavill as Superman, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Ezra Miller as The Flash, Ray Fisher as Cyborg, Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Ray Porter as Darkseid, Ciarán Hinds as Steppenwolf, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor and J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon. The film arrives on HBO Max on March 18.