For years now, there have been rumors about the gifts Jared Leto gave to the Suicide Squad cast.
It all started when Viola Davis told Vanity Fair that Leto gave his co-stars "some really horrific gifts." She spoke casually about the incident, describing how he sent a dead hog to the table read and gifted Margot Robbie a black rat with a mix of awe and fear.
Somehow, Davis' remarks about the incident were twisted as if it was a game of telephone, and before long, people were whispering that he gave the Wolf of Wall Street actress a dead rat.
To be fair, the Dallas Buyers Club actor let people believe he really did send those presents. At the Suicide Squad premiere, he told E! News that he sent "used condoms" and "anal beads" to his co-stars as a gag gift.
"I did a lot of things to create a dynamic, to create an element of surprise, of spontaneity, and to really break down any kind of walls that may be there," he said at the time. "The Joker is somebody who doesn't really respect things like personal space or boundaries."
But now, Leto is singing a different tune in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly.
The actor told the magazine that "99.9 percent of what people read is bulls--t," denying ever sending his co-stars the gag gifts. "Any of the very few gifts that were ever given were given with a spirit of fun and adventure and received with laughter, fun and adventure."
Leto even said that the gift-giving was "filmed," though the footage hasn't been publicly shared. If it was revealed though, the House of Gucci actor said that people would see the cast was "just having a goof."
"I'm playing a guy called the Joker, it's okay to play some jokes," he insisted. "Nothing ever crossed any lines, and it's not up to other people on the internet to create those lines… I'm an artist at the end of the day. If I do something risky and you don't like it, basically, you can kiss my ass."
Leto confirmed he gave Robbie cupcakes and a mouse, but the gifts to the male cast members were the type of stuff "that you'd get as a joke at a party."
The 49-year-old actor kept things a bit more professional for his other roles, including The Little Things. For that movie, Leto participated in some method acting, but Denzel Washington said there were no gifts exchanged.
As Washington told USA Today in January, "He didn't do any of that with me... Nah. He'd have been paid a visit. That wouldn't happen."