When the BBC bombshell documentary brought out ten women accusing Academy-winning actor Jared Leto of sexual abuse, he categorically denied the allegation.
But beyond the denial, chatter was set off on various online forums about the timing of Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret.
They speculated because the Joker star has been at an all-time low in Hollywood over a series of flops.
Now, Alice McShane, director of the documentary, told Variety, “To me it’s completely irrelevant whether he’s “box office poison” or not.”
She continued, “He’s still incredibly famous. The point we make in the film is that despite the allegations that were put forward in the AirMail article, he’s still been in two major movies [since].”
McShane noted, “I know some of his films have flopped. That doesn’t make any difference.”
“The BBC current affairs department – we’re not Hollywood; we are journalists. We’re there to hold power to account, and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” the filmmaker noted.
In addition, McShane also weighed in on an explosive AirMail article that reported nine women accusing Leto of sexual misconduct while the documentary was in the works.
“That’s right. It just takes a huge amount of time to get a documentary to air. I was a bit like, “It’s a bit of a race against time.”
“But then the AirMail article was published, and nine women’s accounts in that piece, and we really thought, ‘Wow, this is the story, you know, this is the moment,'” the director said.
“It was just really surprising when not a huge amount seemed to happen [to Leto’s career] after that article went live,” she noted.
“So that really kind of renewed our energy, I think, to push forward with the documentary and look at what was going on,” McShane concluded.
