Jared Leto has mainly spent his time concentrating on music for the past few years. He made Mr. Nobody in 2009, but was drawn back to acting by Dallas Buyer’s Club, which has just premiered at TIFF to strong reviews.

Jared plays a cross-dressing, HIV+ hooker in the movie. He’s been talking about the role and how he was keen that the character didn’t become a camp cliché. He told USA Today, “There’s been great drag queens in film. But I didn’t want to put up onscreen this cross-dressing cliché that was the butt of every joke. I hadn’t worked in a long time and I saw an opportunity there to bring to life a real person, not a cliché. I knew I was very connected [to her]. I was in character [on set], which I know is a terrible term because it brings up ideas of pretentiousness. But how could you throw it all away, go have lunch, and then ‘action’? I’d probably be terrible. I’d probably be a cliché. So I quickly transformed myself into this person.”

Leto also talked about what drew him back to acting after a four-year hiatus, telling EW that one of the reasons he was drawn to the role was because he had a gay neighbor who was dying from AIDS when he moved to LA when he was in his early 20s. “I watched week after week as he withered away, got sicker and sicker, sores on his body, his neck, and face,” says Leto. “We would sometimes walk and get lunch, or walk to the store. He had a lot of dignity and humor and levity in his situation, so I think there are parts of him in this character as well. I think for people that haven’t been around or had an experience with someone who had been affected by this disease, it’s an easy thing to forget about right now, but I felt an obligation to bring as much grace and humanity to the role as possible.”

Interestingly, despite not making any movies for years, he took little convincing to take the part. stepping in after Gael Garcia Bernal was forced to back out shortly before filming was due to begin.

Dallas Buyers Club is about Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey), who was an ordinary man who found himself in a life-or-death battle with the medical establishment and pharmaceutical companies. In 1986, Ron was blindsided by being diagnosed as HIV-positive and given 30 days to live.

With the US still internally divided over how to combat the virus and restricting medications, Ron grabbed hold of non-toxic alternative treatments from all over the world by means both legal and illegal. Seeking to avoid government sanctions against selling non-approved medicines and supplements, he established a ‘buyers club’, which fellow HIV+ people could join for access to his supplies.

Some are already saying McConaughey, who lost massive amounts of weight for the role, is likely to be nominated for an Oscar, with Leto also getting good notices. It’s out in the US in early November and will hit the US next February.