House of Gucci star Jeremy Irons mistook Jared Leto for one of the film's Italian producers when first meeting him in full makeup. The latest film from prolific director Ridley Scott is his second to release in 2021, after the medieval epic The Last Duel. After having its world premiere in London earlier this month, House of Gucci hit theaters in the US on November 24.
Based on the novel The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed by Sara Gay Forden, Scott's film primarily follows the ambitious Patrizia Reggiani, played by Lady Gaga, as she marries into the famous Gucci family. Patrizia hopes to steer the fashion titans from within by manipulating her husband Maurizio (Adam Driver), but when he starts to push back against her designs, she resorts to violence to get her way. Alongside Irons and Leto, the supporting cast also includes Salma Hayek and Al Pacino, making House of Gucci a real star-studded affair.
According to an interview with Collider, Irons didn't even recognize Leto when they first met. The latter is notably wearing a significant amount of makeup to transform his appearance, and Irons admits that he had never met him before, making it particularly difficult for him to notice Leto on sight. Though he soon knew him as his scene-partner, Irons says, he first mistook Leto for one of the film's Italian producers. Check out his full quote below:
When he appeared, I mean, I knew that was the person... I hadn't met Jared before. So when he appeared, I thought it was one of the Italian producers. And then he started doing something - he didn't do the actual lines that were written, maybe he was throwing in loads of stuff, and I thought, 'This is extraordinary. This is really extraordinary, such a brave actor...'
Much of the press surrounding House of Gucci has focused on the lengths members of the cast went to when transforming into their characters, which seems to have varied significantly. Leto sits at the far end, having donned significant prosthetics, along with Lady Gaga, who reportedly spent months speaking in Patrizia's accent. Whether these efforts translate to quality within the film depends on the critic asked, though many have singled out both Gaga and Leto as hitting an enjoyably campy tone compared to some of their more dour co-stars.
Leto has a reputation for seeking out transformative roles, though the reception of his acting methods has been mixed throughout his career. His performance as a transgender woman in Dallas Buyers Club earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for example, while his on-set antics as the Joker on Suicide Squad have become somewhat infamous since the film's release. With reactions to the film in general fairly polarized so far, viewers will have to judge for themselves which side of that line Leto's work in House of Gucci falls on.
Source: Collider