I am Morbius

We chat to Academy Award-winning actor JARED LETO about playng the eponymous lead in the latest superhero movie from Sony Pictures’ Universe of Marvel characters…

Jared Leto is standing on a sound stage in West London. All around him are walls of green screen that will later be filled with the sights of the Amazon rainforest. Behind him is a full-size helicopter while ahead stands the opening to a deep, dark cave. Mist hangs in the air. There is palpable tension. Leto’s character is about to make a life-altering move.
He walks with crutches and inches one limb slowly ahead of another, his long hair hanging low around his shoulders and his body draped in a voluminous cape. “These bats have lived for 55 million years,” he murmurs as he edges towards the fissure in the rock, “humans a paltry 300,000. Truth is, they’ll outlive us all.”
Leto is starring as the eponymous hero in Morbius, a superhero movie in the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel characters. His character’s full name is Dr. Michael Morbius, a celebrated New York scientist with a rare, incurable blood disease that is slowly killing him. Using the bats he captures in the cave he plans a radical experiment that he hopes will cure his, and others’, affliction. However, the move will push ethical boundaries and, unbeknown to Morbius, will come at a terrible price. The experiment saves his life, and it also imbues him with special powers. But, from that moment forth, he will need fresh human plasma to survive. Others will have to die in order that he may live.
“Michael Morbius is a guy who marches to the beat of his own drum,” begins Leto, who recently turned 50, when we speak after the film has wrapped. “He is an iconoclast. He is a person who has had some validating success betting on himself and breaking the rules. And he is not afraid to do that in order to achieve his greater mission.” Leto has earned huge success with this focused approach to his craft, from his turn as a heroin addict in Requiem for a Dream (2000) to his Academy Award-winning role in Dallas Buyers Club (2013).
Playing Morbius, however, offered the actor a fresh opportunity. “It is rare that you get the chance to bring a character to life on the screen that hasn’t been played before,” he says. “That really piqued my curiosity. It is a classic, superhero origin story although it is not so simple,” he adds. “These days we are ready for more nuanced superheroes. I think that it would be okay to call Morbius a ‘super-something’. He doesn’t necessarily fit the bill of a superhero in many ways. But he is a guy with a noble heart and really good intentions, and it is exciting to introduce the world to a superhero 3.0. It has been a fascinating journey.”
Morbius’s journey began in the Marvel comic books where he debuted as an antagonist in The Amazing Spider-Man #101 (Oct. 1971). Created by writer Roy Thomas and designed by artist Gil Kane, he went on to star in his own stories and the filmmakers have drawn from his many incarnations to create their movie. The movie slots into Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel characters, which features Spider-Man and Venom, though in this origin story Morbius will stand alone. Daniel Espinosa (Easy Money, Safe House, Child 44) directs and the cast features former Dr. Who actor Matt Smith, who stars as Milo, a close friend of Morbius’s who becomes a dark temptation to the leading character. Tyrese Gibson and Al Madrigal, meanwhile, bring a dash of levity to the serious roles as FBI agents who track superhero activity
Although the film is dark in tone, Leto notes that the moments of levity are important and hopes that Morbius will surprise audiences. He has certainly poured heart and soul into his pursuit of the character; the actor is a diligent researcher of his roles. “I did as much as I could,” he explains. “Even though this is a fictional affliction, I still wanted to understand as much as I could. I spent time with rare blood disease survivors and people with really unique rare diseases to try and understand what that challenge might be like. I wanted to do my best to accurately portray the character in his particular circumstances.
“And, to be clear, this is Dr. Michael Morbius’s race against time, to save not only his own life but also other people’s lives. That intense pursuit was something that moved the story in a really powerful way.” The actor’s preparation also embraced the physical as Morbius transforms from a dying man to a physically powerful super-human.
“It was a physical challenge in a lot of ways,” continues Leto, “and certainly it had psychological challenges as well. I think that probably made it perfect for me as I am fascinated by those things — by physical transformation — and it is rare that you get that kind of experience in a film like this.
“To see someone going from nearly dying to being in the best physical and most powerful shape they could ever be in is something completely unexpected.” For Leto, the most rewarding aspect of the role is the dichotomy that the transformation engenders in Morbius. He undoubtedly wants to do good in the world, but his newfound circumstances have engendered a set of mysterious new urges.
“I loved that we could explore the darker corners of the universe a little,” he concludes. “And I do love the grittiness and the rebelliousness and the darker nature of Morbius, the film. I am super excited about it and really excited that people finally get to go to a theatre and experience this kind of film.” ■