Jared Leto Just Climbed the Empire State Building

Jared Leto climbed the Empire State Building on Thursday – and he didn’t take the stairs. The actor scaled a portion of the building’s exterior on Thursday, Nov. 9 – apparently with the approval of the building owners and with cameras all around. Afterward, Leto explained the stunt in an interview on The Today Show.

Leto said that climbing the Empire State Building in New York City has been on his bucket list for years, and in recent years his love for rock climbing has gone viral. Building officials said that Leto is the first person to ever legally climb the building’s exterior. In addition to checking off a bucket list goal, this stunt was also meant to promote Leto’s band’s world tour. Thirty Second to Mars will play to crowds around the world from March to September of 2024, though for Leto this was clearly more of a personal undertaking.

“It’s incredible,” he said. “To watch the sun rise overlooking the city that’s meant so much to me. Ever since I was a kid, New York stood for the place that you went to make your dreams come true. And as a young kid, I wanted to be an artist, and New York was the place that you came to be an artist. And the Empire State Building was always that symbol for me… “I’ve always had a fascination with the Empire State Building, and I love to climb.”

When it came to the athletic endeavor itself, Leto said: “I was more excited than nervous to tell you the truth. But I have to be honest, it was very, very hard. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Just the endurance that it took, the stamina that it took, and it was very sharp.” Here, he held up his bloodied hand which he apparently injured at some point during the climb.

Leto’s family was there to support him – right there, in fact, as he said: “I made it to the top, and I was just saying, I saw my mother in the window of the 80th floor, and that was a nice surprise.”

Leto did not climb the building from the street all the way to the top – he actually climbed from floor 86 to floor 104, topping out at about 1,300 feet in the air. The whole thing reportedly took about 20 minutes. He ended at the ice shield just beneath the antenna. When asked what he would be climbing next, Leto joked: “Into bed.”