How Jeff Bridges Really Feels About Jared Leto's Method Acting On TRON: Ares

"Tron: Ares" should be the most hyped movie of 2025. It's the long awaited sequel to the (in the eyes of this writer, at least) cult classic "Tron: Legacy" and features new music by Nine Inch Nails. But the one thing that seems to suck the air out of the room anytime there's a new "Tron: Ares" trailer is the inclusion of Jared Leto as the titular Ares, a dangerous computer program who enters the real world. A big part of that comes down to the sexual misconduct allegations lobbied against Leto earlier this year, which the actor's team has denied.

However, even before such allegations came to light, Leto had burned a lot of the goodwill he amassed after his Oscar win for "Dallas Buyers Club" with his bizarre conduct in the name of method acting. He even freaked out the "Morbius" cast and crew by walking around with crutches and engaging in other forms of unsettling behavior for the sake of a film that would wind up with a 15% critics' rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The "Tron: Ares" cast attended a panel for the film at the 2025 San Diego Comic-Con (via The Hollywood Reporter), and while Leto's allegations didn't come up, a conversation surrounding his method acting did. Many actors have disturbing method acting stories, and Leto is no exception, like when he supposedly mailed anal beads to his "Suicide Squad" co-stars. However, Jeff Bridges, who is reprising his role as Kevin Flynn from the first two "Tron" movies for "Ares," didn't really take issue with it. 

Considering that Ares is another villainous character like Joker in "Suicide Squad," it's not unreasonable to assume Jared Leto may have pulled similar stunts while filming "Tron: Ares." It doesn't sound like he went that far, but he did apparently want to be referred to by his character's name. Jeff Bridges, however, took it in stride, saying at SDCC:

"I didn't want to offend him as a thespo. But I thought, 'I wanted to have a certain intimacy with you. I know your name is Ares. Can I just call you Air?' He said, 'Yeah man! You can call me whatever you want!' We had a great time."

If there's anything to take away from this anecdote, it's that Bridges really is just The Dude from "The Big Lebowski" in real life. Everything's amusing to him although it would be interesting to see if he could still maintain his Dude demeanor if he had to, say, unexpectedly open a package of anal beads.

Maybe Leto didn't want to do anything too weird with Bridges, as it sounds like he has a lot of respect for the seasoned actor. Leto actually called "cut" following their first scene together because he technically broke character. "I don't often do that," Leto explained at the panel. "The first AD comes over and said, 'Is everything OK? What's wrong?' And I said, 'You know, I just can't stop smiling, because I'm working with my guy.'" It's a nice story, but Leto's method acting should take a backseat to his alleged sexual misconduct.

"Tron: Ares" opens in theaters on October 10, 2025.