Jared Leto doesn’t do things by halves. Having revealed that he got into character as the Joker by sending Margot Robbie a live rat, and mailing bullets to his other 'Suicide Squad' co-stars, Leto has been explaining how he perfected the villain’s signature laugh. And needless to say, it wasn’t by hiring a voice coach…

“I worked on the laugh, like, walking around the streets of New York and Toronto,” says Leto, “and I kinda would walk around the streets and see what laugh would get under people’s skin. You know if you hear someone laugh loud at a restaurant? It’s a little jarring. Yeah, I tried them out. And I kind of got to a place where I would laugh and people always turn around like, ‘What is this creepy guy behind me?’”

So basically, when people were fleeing in the street, he knew he’d got the voice down. Bit more colourful than studying the old films, isn’t it?

To be fair to Leto, he’s got big shoes to fill after Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning performance, so it’s understandable he wants to get it right. Let’s just hope he doesn’t get himself locked up in the process….

Co-starring Will Smith, Jai Courtney, Cara Delavigne and Joel Kinnamon,' Suicide Squad' will hit cinemas on 5 August 2016.

'- By George Wales'