Jared Leto is sporting a super shaggy beard these days (perhaps for Septembeard?), but he's still smokin' hot as evidenced by his appearance at the Toronto International Film Festival.
He and his bandmates known as 30 Seconds to Mars won the People's Choice Award for their documentary Artifact, directed by Jared himself, under the alias Bartholemew Cubbins. (Watch the trailer below!)
"It started as a film about the making of an album, and it became a film about the most brutal and challenging conflict of our lives," Leto told Rolling Stone in Toronto, adding that the film has received several offers from distributors.
"I hope that artists and audiences watch this film and get a greater understanding of how things work [in the record industry], because understanding is the beginning of change. Inevitably, we're all moving towards what I hope is a more transparent system."
Artifact explains the band's legal battle with EMI, who filed a $30 million breach of contract lawsuit against them in 2008 for failing to deliver the third of five albums. The band's most recent LP at the time, 2005's Beautiful Lie, had sold 3.5 million copies, yet they still owed money to the label. The dispute lasted over 200 days and inspired what would become their third LP, 2009's This Is War.
"It actually helped us make a better album," Jared said. "We were very determined. We had to make an album that succeeded no matter what – with or without a label. So the record is directly influenced and informed by this battle. It's called This Is War for a reason. We were fighting for all of us. We were fighting for fairness. We're a small band that's had a bit of success, and we were fighting a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate. That's kind of crazy, right?"
Check out the trailer!
Photo: jared-leto.net