One of the biggest tropes of the Academy Awards is that all an actor need to win an Oscar is to radically change his appearance, and tonight the list of examples of this cliché got a little bit longer. Jared Leto, who both lost an incredible amount of weight and underwent an impressive transformation to play a pre-op transsexual in Jean-Marc Vallée Dallas Buyers Club, has won this year’s prize for Best Supporting Actor.
In the movie, Leto plays Rayon, an AIDS patient clinging to life without medication living in Texas. His chance comes to improve his odds against the disease, however, when he meets Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey), a fellow AIDS sufferer who isn’t afraid to fight back against the law. Together they form the Dallas Buyers Club, an organization that provides patients with medication that has been proven to work on the sexually transmitted virus but has been banned by the FDA. You can watch the trailer for the film below:
Leto let his rock star-long hair flow as he took to the stage, his first reaction being to hold his newly-acquired statue above his head. He then began to tell the story of a single mother pregnant with her single child who struggled to survive back in 1971, but still managed to "make a better life for herself and her children." It was an ode to his mother, who was also with him in the audience.
This may not be the last time that we hear about Dallas Buyers Club this evening. Leto’s co-star Matthew McConaughey is nominated for Best Actor in a Leading role – and is a favorite to win – and the film’s other nominations include Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Stay tuned!
Dallas Buyers Club is currently available to purchase on Blu-ray and DVD.
