Jared Leto enjoyed playing the ill-dressed Paolo Gucci in Ridley Scott’s crime drama “House of Gucci” so much that he has an idea to return to it — with co-star Al Pacino.
In the film, Paolo struggles to win the respect of his father and Gucci chairman Aldo — played by Pacino — due to his lack of fashion or business sense. When Paolo chafes under his father’s control, he is manipulated by his cousin Maurizio and his wife Patrizia (Adam Driver and Lady Gaga) into “taking out” Aldo by providing proof of tax evasion before shutting down his attempts to start his own line. By the end of the film, Paolo and Aldo reconcile, but both are forced to give up their ownership stake in Gucci.
Now, in an interview on “The Jess Cagle Show” on SiriusXM, Leto says that he’d be interested in further exploring the relationship between Paolo and Aldo in a film that would be set before the events of “House of Gucci.”
“I’d love to do a prequel to ‘House of Gucci,’” Leto told Cagle. “‘Just the Two of Us,’ we could call it.”
It would be another chance for the two Oscar winners to work together, something that Leto called a “beautiful gift.” Their connection started off awkwardly, though, when Pacino didn’t recognize him under the layers of makeup he wore to play Paolo.
“He thought I was just an Italian weirdo that was trying to talk to him or get his autograph or something,” Leto said. “I come up to him two or three times and someone finally whispered, ‘That’s Paolo, that’s Jared under there.’ And he was like, ‘My son, my son,’ and he fell to the floor. He was just astounded.”
Leto will next exchange Paolo’s tacky suits for some fangs and a thirst for blood in “Morbius,” where he will play the titular antihero who becomes a vampire after finding a mysterious cure to a rare blood condition. Sony Pictures has moved the film’s release from January to April in response to the COVID-19 Omicron surge.
Watch Leto’s remarks in the clip above.