Footage of Jared Leto joking about “high school girls” has resurfaced after four women accused him of sexual misconduct while they were teenagers.
The allegations of sexual assault, statutory rape, grooming and threats of sexual assault are made in a new BBC documentary, Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret.
The women interviewed in the film said they encountered the 54-year-old Oscar-winning actor and musician between 2002 and 2016, when they were each between 16 and 18 years old and he was in his 30s and 40s.
Leto has denied the allegations. In a statement to The Independent, he said: “I have never sexually assaulted anyone in my entire life. These claims are absolutely and categorically false.”
The BBC film also includes a clip of Leto onstage with his band 30 Seconds to Mars at Ex’Pression College in Emeryville, California in 2013.
In the resurfaced footage, Leto can be seen inviting a young woman to join him onstage before saying: “Give me a hug, first of all,” and asking her name and where she is from.
After she told Leto that she was from Los Angeles, he impersonated Matthew McConaughey while quoting a line from the 1993 movie Dazed and Confused: “That’s what I like about high school girls. I keep getting older, they stay the same age. Alright, alright, alright.”
Leto first rose to prominence in the 1990s on the television drama My So-Called Life before winning the Academy Award for best supporting actor in 2014 for Dallas Buyers Club. He is also the lead vocalist of Thirty Seconds to Mars, the band he formed with his brother, Shannon, in 1998.
The most serious allegation in the new documentary comes from a woman using the pseudonym Isabel, who alleged Leto sexually assaulted her in a Las Vegas motel bathroom in 2002 when she was 17. “Most of my life I had viewed this event as, I was a stupid girl … and so this bad thing happened,” she told the BBC.
A second woman, identified as Alex, has alleged that Leto threatened her with sexual assault after inviting her to his hotel room following a Thirty Seconds to Mars concert in London in 2013. Alex, who said she was 19 but told Leto she was 17, alleged he replied: “Age is just a number, and anyway, we’re in Europe.”
She said she left after he repeatedly told her she would wake up “with a d*** in her a**”.
Another woman, using the pseudonym Clara, alleged she first had sex with Leto at his California home in 2006 when she was 17 and he was 34. She alleged Leto dismissed a discussion about California's age of consent – which is 18 – and referred to her as “my little girl” while asking her to call him “daddy”.
A fourth woman, identified as Etta, alleged Leto groomed her after meeting her at a Los Angeles modeling agency in 2014, when she was 16. She told the BBC he later made repeated sexually explicit phone calls, asking whether she was a virgin and suggesting they should have sex.
Etta also alleged Leto later attempted to have her sign a non-disclosure agreement. The BBC said it had reviewed the unsigned agreement, along with related emails and text messages.
The investigation also includes accounts from five women who alleged they received sexually explicit phone calls from Leto while they were younger, four of whom said they were teenagers at the time.
Another woman, identified as Taylor, alleged that Leto made a lewd comment about her body and attempted to have a security guard take her backstage after she met him at a music festival when she was 14.
Two former members of Thirty Seconds to Mars’ crew also told the BBC they had been uncomfortable with what they described as Leto’s interactions with teenage girls backstage and at recording locations.
In 2025, an investigation by Air Mail revealed that nine women had accused Leto of sexual impropriety, several alleging they were under the age of consent at the time. The report came weeks after Los Angeles DJ Allie Teilz publicly alleged on social media that Leto assaulted her when she was 17, prompting several other women to come forward with similar claims.
Leto denied any wrongdoing at the time, saying through a representative: “All of the allegations are expressly denied.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
If you are in the UK, Rape Crisis offers support for those affected by rape and sexual abuse. You can call them on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, and 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland, or visit their website at www.rapecrisis.org.uk.
