Jared Leto will play the role of Karl Lagerfeld in a planned biopic about the fashion legend. Leto will also produce the movie, according to WWD.
Lagerfeld had a career spanning five decades. He was best known as the creative director of Chanel, alongside his signature look of sunglasses, high starched collars and white hair pulled back into a ponytail. The German-born designer died in Paris in February 2019 at the age of 85.
Related: Iconic fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld dies at age 85 in Paris
Leto, 50, told WWD that when he first met Lagerfeld, he told him, “You know, one day I have to play you in a movie.”
He says Lagerfeld replied, “Only you, darling, only you.”
“I feel like this is a full-circle moment and Karl would be proud of what we are doing,” Leto said.
There’s no title or timeline for the movie yet. Leto would only share that the film will focus on important relationships in Lagerfeld’s life.
“There are a multitude of relationships to explore. Karl had a career that spanned 50-plus years so both personally and professionally he was close to a number of people. I can say we are going to home in on key relationships that convey different parts of his life.”
Karl Lagerfeld and Jacques de Bascher
Lagerfeld reportedly had an 18-year relationship with the French aristocrat, model, and socialite Jacques de Bascher. However, he the relationship was reportedly not sexual. Bascher died of AIDS in 1989 and Lagerfeld kept a vigil at his bedside.
He kept his other personal relationships private. However, he was famously devoted to his cat, Choupette. In 2013, the designer and photographer said he would happily marry his feline friend, were it legal to do so.
Leto is collaborating with the Lagerfeld fashion house on the movie, and a handful of the designer’s closest confidantes will act as executive producers.
“My role is to portray him on screen as honestly as possible,” Leto said of Lagerfeld. “With celebrity, most people don’t get to see under the surface. They see one or two facets of a person as presented through a public lens.”
“Karl was a human being. We all have beauty within us and we all have faults. We have masks and then we have moments when we reveal the mask. I’m always interested in seeing what’s behind the mask.”
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Related: Twitter goes nuts with Jared Leto memes after he shows up to fight in quite the outfit
Leto won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as the trans character, Rayon, in the 2013 movie, Dallas Buyers Club.
This is not the first time he’s played a figure from the fashion world on screen. In last year’s House of Gucci, starring Lady Gaga, Leto was almost unrecognizable in the role of Paolo Gucci.
abfab
Lights! Cameras! Models! I’m chanting as we speak! Can’t wait.
Fahd
I hope Leto can draw on sources who interacted with Lagerfeld in German and French. Speaking those languages, Lagerfeld was a very different person from the American version of Lagerfeld. Also, as regards relationships, I myself would be interested in the story of his relationships with Brad Kroenig and Baptiste…(and maybe Diet Coke).
bachy
I’m getting tired of the tabloid exposé approach to celebrity biopics. Do we, the drooling masses, really need to know who Karl Lagerfeld swindled, victimized and f*cked? What good will that do?
A balls-out hagiography might be a more fun way to approach this particular subject. Why not present Lagerfeld’s life through a lens of glamour, whimsy and fantasy – like one of his perfume ads or runway shows? I’d like to be dazzled and enchanted! Isn’t that what a creative genius like Karl would have wanted? What I don’t want is to be shaking my head, thinking: “I always knew that guy was a total sh|thead.”
Doug
I don’t read anything here claiming the film will be about who he “swindled, victimized and f*cked.” Why are you assuming it will be?
bachy
@Doug: If they use the tabloid exposé style, they’ll inevitably find someone in Lagerfeld’s past who’s been “swindled, victimized and f*cked.”
DennisMpls
I think a good biopic should do both of those things. Show the “glamour, whimsy and fantasy,” but ALSO show the downsides without making them the focus. As Leto says, “We all have beauty within us and we all have faults.” I want to see both, balanced fairly.
Jim
But Jared isn’t a gay fashion designer.
They really need to hire a gay fashion designer to play the part
DennisMpls
Nor is he German. WTF. How can the gay German fashion designer actors get parts if no one will hire them???
abfab
You guys are so funny. Bring it, baby! We are NOT going to let this one go!
Watch CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENTARY before this new biopic. It’s in French so this will pose a challenge to our republican friends.
SDR94103
great pick! Jared
humble charlie
it would make more sense to get one of madame tussaud’s wax figures to play lagerfeld
Mostlikelytobedownvoted
Madonna!
abfab
Carol Channing!