• Home
  • News
  • Entertainment
  • LAD Originals

To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

Not now
OK
Advert
Advert
Advert

Jared Leto Set To Play Playboy Founder Hugh Hefner In Upcoming Biopic

Stewart Perrie

Published 
| Last updated 

Jared Leto Set To Play Playboy Founder Hugh Hefner In Upcoming Biopic

The legendary playboy Hugh Hefner only died last week and yet there are plans already underway to immortalise him further in a big motion picture. But with the vast array of actors in Hollywood and elsewhere, there must be someone out there that not only looks like the sailor hat wearing, cigar smoking, publishing magnate, but also embodies everything that he stood for.

Well it appears that the director behind the upcoming biopic, Brett Ratner, has found his leading man: Jared Leto. The Suicide Squad actor reportedly approached Ratner about playing the Hef when the producer-director got the rights to his story.

Ratner has told The Hollywood Reporter: "Jared is an old friend. He told me, 'I want to play him. I want to understand him'. And I really believe Jared can do it. He's one of the great actors of today."

Jared Leto
Jared Leto
Advert

Credit: PA

Obviously, Jared won't be able to sit down with the man himself to try and portray him in the best possible way, but Ratner adds: "There's enough footage on Hef out there that Jared will be able to get as much information as he wants."

Brett reportedly got the rights to Hefner's story off producer Jerry Weintraub when he died in 2015. But he's been interested in the project for ten years, with Robert Downey Jr's name once being thrown into the ring for the actor to play Hefner.

While the filming was underway for Suicide Squad, Leto reportedly got a bit freaky and sent his co-stars some interesting items, including used condoms and sticky Playboy magazines. This could have been hit early signal that he wanted to become Hefner.

Advert
Hugh Hefner
Hugh Hefner

The Hef in 1966. Credit: PA

Leto is known for being a method actor when taking on various film roles. He dropped 13kg (30lbs) and waxed his body from head to toe when playing a transgendered woman in Dallas Buyers Club, which won him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

He reportedly gave up sex and lived on the streets for two weeks to understand what it's like living rough before filming Requiem For a Dream. He most recently used contact lenses to mimic the feeling of being blind for Blade Runner 2049 where he plays Niander Wallace, a blind, manipulative, replicant manufacturer.

Advert

So it will be interesting to see how he goes about method acting to play the renowned Hugh Hefner, who never stopped hosting parties or entertaining a bevy of beautiful women.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Suicide Squad, Jared Leto, playboy, Hugh Hefner

Stewart Perrie
More like this
Advert
Advert
Advert

Chosen for YouChosen for You

News

Notorious prankster behind sex noise prank at Euro 2024 draw explains how he did it

34 minutes ago

Most Read StoriesMost Read

Nella Rose's family speak out following controversial confrontation with Fred Sirieix

17 hours ago