Although Matthew McConaughey is the top-billed star of Dallas Buyer's Club, it's Jared Leto who's getting the Oscar buzz. The actor/musician gives a groundbreaking performance as Rayon, a transgender woman with AIDS, in the new film that is set for a Nov. 1 release.
During the course of the film's story, a drug-addicted and HIV-infected Rayon, aware that her days are numbered, makes one last attempt to do something worthwhile as she falls in love with a fellow AIDS patient ( Bradford Cox ).
"I felt complete, right, as she wanted to be," Leto of his onscreen transformation. "I think she was in a process of discovery, it was a lot of fun to invent her." The character is, he reports, an amalgamation of several real life people. Towards the end of the film, an emaciated Rayon succumbs to AIDS. "I lost around 30-40 pounds," Leto said. "I just stopped eating. It wasn't easy! After the shoot, I started eating again."
Leto, who is straight, explained how he developed the character. "I looked for common ground," he said. "You find things like the desire to be loved. I loved her charm, her grace, and her levity."
Dallas Buyers Club follows the final years in the life of Ron Woodroof ( McConaughey ), a real-ife, hard-partying cowboy in Dallas. Woodroof was diagnosed with HIV in 1985 and given 30 days to live. A foul-mouthed homophobe, he's also a man of above-average intelligence with a strong will to live.
He travels to Mexico, where an underground AIDS treatment restores his health and extends his life by years. He begins illegally importing non-FDA approved drugs from Mexico, Japan, Israel and wherever else he can obtain them, selling them on the black market out of a Dallas motel room. His work brings him in contact with the local gay community, where Rayon becomes his liaison and business partner. As his anti-gay views soften considerably, Woodroof incurs the wrath of the Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ), which tries to stop him even though the treatments he offers appear to be working.
The film co-stars Jennifer Garner as Eve Saks, a doctor who puts her career on the line by supporting Woodroof. Denis O'Hare—an openly gay actor acclaimed for his roles in the TV series True Blood and the movie Milk—plays her superior, an old-school conservative who ignores the facts and works with the FDA to stop Woodroof.
"It's a timely film," said Leto. "So much of this battle rages on. AIDS is not the death sentence that it used to be, so this topic is worthy of exploration and debate. This is an American story, not over-told, it's great that it got made."
Leto said that the project was in development for 20 years, and credited McConaughey's star power for getting it made. Leto said he's confident the film will reach those whose minds might still need to be opened. He's been attending screenings and granting interviews as he tours with his band, Thirty Seconds to Mars. "An 80-year-old woman told me that the film was life-changing for her," Leto said. "Films have the power to change us."
He said he's hopeful that the film will bring about more change. "A greater understanding would be nice," he said.
