Based in fact, “Lord of War” closely examines the intricacies of a world that’s thus far been all but ignored in films. Written and directed by Andrew Niccol (“S1m0ne”), “Lord of War” is an action/thriller that exposes just how all those weapons end up in the hands of guerilla fighters and terrorists.
Jared Leto on the Topic of “Lord of War:” “I was definitely familiar with it but Andrew [Niccol] still managed to educate me a great deal through his script. He has a very specific process when he does something, so he really elaborated on a subject that I knew a little bit about, but certainly was a world that I was completely unfamiliar with.”
On Researching His Character: “I did my own research as well. One of the things that I did was I started to learn Russian. We were both – Yuri, Nicolas Cage’s character and I were both Russian immigrants, brothers in the film, so while we don’t have accents, we definitely speak Russian fluently. So I started to learn Russian and I was one of those probably way too eager, annoying young actor kids who was trying to change all my lines to Russian, much to the dismay of the director and Nic Cage. They told me to relax and we couldn’t have a movie filled with subtitles so it got cut back a bit. But it was very challenging to learn Russian.”
Jared Leto on the Appeal of “Lord of War” to Audiences: “It’s a challenging film. It’s not for every single person. It’s only for people who want to experience something different. The movie takes you on a ride and it is an escape, and it’s very funny at times. It gives us a look into a world that’s very much like ‘Traffic’ was for drugs, this movie is for gun running. Dark at times, but I think Nic Cage is an incredible person to watch and very entertaining. He was a good choice to bring us to such a dark world.”
On Playing Nicolas Cage’s Brother: “We really bonded very early. He has a great sense of humor and was very kind to me. I learned so much from watching such an incredible actor. He really is a master at what he does. It was a real honor to be able to work with someone like that that I’ve been watching since I was a kid. …I mean, to play his brother left some people scratching their heads but something about it really worked.”
Jared Leto Defines His “Lord of War” Character: “Andrew has talked about my character being the conscience of the film, the heart of the film. And there’s a moral ambiguity I think to Yuri – Nic Cage’s character – but Vitaly, the character I play in the film, he’s a dreamer. He’s an innocent in a lot of ways. He’s a very simple person who really doesn’t have the resources or the strength, ultimately, to handle the situation. I think he’s very emotionally and intimately affected by the circumstances and situations that he experiences through his travels with Yuri. And Yuri is kind of able to laugh off – not laugh off – but just kind of justify through his skewed sense of the world. I think that Vitaly has a hard time and ultimately isn’t able to live on life’s terms.”
On Leaving ‘Vitaly’ Behind at the End of the Day: Leto said he was able to leave Vitaly behind him on the set a lot more than he could with other characters he’s played. “It still affected me greatly. But I mean there is a relationship for sure, I felt some kind of parallel with my character Harry Goldfarb in ‘Requiem for a Dream’ and this character. They seem like they could be distant cousins. They lived in the same neighborhood, probably five, ten blocks from one another. There was definitely a parallel there.”
On Playing Another Drug Addict: “I think I remember from the offset I said, ‘I’ve visited this territory. This isn’t for me.’ And then I read the script and I said, ‘You know, this is completely something different. This is a whole new life.’ And there’s a similarity there but I thought it was an interesting parallel to play, as far as doing work on the character.”
Jared Leto on Working with Writer/Director Andrew Niccol: Leto acknowledged that he likes to work with writer/directors, particularly because it’s easy to turn to them and ask for something that isn’t working to be rewritten. And according to Leto, Niccol is easy to approach and readily accepts input from his actors. “It’s very funny because you’ll find this often with a writer/director. They’re actually less precious about their words sometimes than directors who haven’t written the script. He’s very open to saying things differently if it needed to be. But he wrote a really good script and we stuck to it most of the time,” said Leto.
Page 2: Jared Leto on Choosing Roles and Making Music
