Jared Leto is finding his feminine side.
The actor-musician stepped out in full drag on the New Orleans, La., set of The Dallas Buyers Club — a drama chronicling the real life of Ron Woodruff, a heterosexual HIV-positive drug addict who smuggled much-needed medication into the country in 1980s.
With a wig and full face of makeup, a skinny Leto donned a mini skirt and fur coat to transform into his character Rayon, a cross-dresser battling AIDS.
Before slipping into his lady getup on set, the 30 Seconds to Mars frontman prepped by saying goodbye to his body hair. “I just waxed my legs for this new role. Ladies, I feel your pain,” he tweeted, later adding: “What I have learned today: Beauty Is Pain #waxonwaxoff.”
Leto isn’t the only cast member transforming his physique all in the name of art. Matthew McConaughey — who stars as Woodruff — dedicated months to dropping weight, sticking to a restricted high-protein, low-carb diet ahead of filming. “I’m playing a guy who was sick and would have loved to have been healthier but wasn’t,” the actor told Us Weeklyin August. Shedding pounds is “more of a mental thing than a physical thing” he explained. “I’ll get down to the weight I need to get to. I’m on my way, and it’s what I need to do for the job.”
As production began on The Dallas Buyers Club last week, a skeletal McConaughey was almost unrecognizable, sporting a Burt Reynolds-like mustache, longer locks and a dark lesion on his forward, a telltale sign of AIDS affliction.
