As a true testament to Jared Leto's acting skills, even his co-star Margot Robbie in "Suicide Squad" was terrified of him, and the Australian actress who plays his on-screen girlfriend Harley Quinn cannot help but call Leto's performance as the Joker as "pretty impressive."
"What he's doing with the character is so cool," she told the New York Daily News, adding it was also quite the ordeal for her to do scenes with Leto when he's fully made up as the Joker, replete with gold teeth and shocking green hair.
"At first it was kind of confronting (to be up close) but now I'm so used to it, I think if I ever saw him out of makeup now I would be really confused," said Robbie. "Actually, I saw him out of makeup once and I was actually petrified of him. I was too scared to go up and didn't know who that person was, and when he got back into his makeup I was far more comfortable."
"Suicide Squad," has been scheduled a release date of August 5, 2016 and will focus on the stories of DC's most threatening villains, who have been hired by the government to complete dangerous secret mission in exchange for their release.
Aside from Leto's Joker and Robbie's Quinn, other cast members include Will Smith as Deathstroke, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flagg, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Cara Delevingne as Enchantress, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Killer Croc, Adam Beach as Slipknot, Jay Hernandez as El Diablo, Karen Fukuhara as Katana, and Common, in an undisclosed role.
Moviegoers are so used to seeing superheroes save the universe so Robbie believes that it would be pretty cool to see villains take up the mantle for a change.
"I guess the one common denominator is we're all bad guys, it just makes everything more fun that way," she said. "The scenes are more interesting I feel, when you just don't know how the characters are going to react, especially with Harley, who's absolutely nuts... she's either going to kill you or laugh and give you a hug."
During the interview, Robbie revealed that she almost signed on to portray a different character in the superhero universe - Invisible Woman in the rebooted "Fantastic Four," which was a box office flop. The role eventually went to Kate Mara, and Robbie feels grateful that she chose Harley Quinn.
"I didn't really resonate with the script, and I haven't seen the movie, so I don't really know how it turned out different from the page," she said. "But I had a great meeting with the director (Josh Trank) and I really enjoyed that. I guess it's part of the game: Sometime you win some, sometimes you lose some."